OSU’S defense, fast-paced offense too much

OSU BASKETBALL and knew where shooters were …

“Our defense definitely led to some transition (offense). We hadn’t been running the ball as much lately. It was good to see (point guard) Tiffany Bias go out and have some fun.”

That fast-break bucket, which included a hockey assist from Bias before Lindsey Keller dished over a defender to Young for the score, was part of a Cowgirl 20-0 run that overlapped the first and second halves and turned the game into a blowout.

The defense consistently tightened, holding the Cyclones (13-3, 4-2 Big 12) scoreless for more than seven minutes to start the second half.

Then off of those missed shots or turnovers, Bias quickly got the Cowgirls into the offensive end, often finding Donohoe on the wing for an open 3 or another teammate streaking to the basket for the layup. She finished with 11 assists and was one of five players who scored in double figures.

As a team, the Cowgirls (14-2, 3-2 Big 12) scored 24 points off ISU turnovers and tallied 16 fast break points.

“I guess we were just on fire,” Bias said, not realizing how big that decisive run was. “We really played good today and just executed. We really played the style of ball that we want to play.”

And is it fun to play at that furious pace? Oh yeah, Donohoe said as her eyes lit up.

“We just kind of got into a flow,” Donohoe said. “We were having fun. (Bias) was distributing the ball to everybody, and everybody was scoring. If one person wasn’t open, we passed to another and someone else scored.”

The victory was OSU’s third consecutive by double digits since dropping its first two conference games. And Sunday’s win showed how the Cowgirls have already progressed since a disappointing home loss to Texas Tech to open Big 12 play two weeks ago.

Against the Lady Raiders, the Cowgirls couldn’t overcome Young’s foul trouble. Fouls also limited Young, the Cowgirls’ leading scorer, to just seven minutes and zero points in the first half Sunday, but reserves Kendra Suttles (12 points, 4 rebounds) and Morgan Toben (six points, three assists) gave the Cowgirls a lift off the bench.

Hallie Christofferson led Iowa State with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

For the first time this season, Littell said, the Cowgirls played a complete 40 minutes.

“Even in the games that we had won,” Littell said, “we’d had stretches where there were seven or eight minutes where didn’t score or we were fouling and sending somebody to the free-throw line.

“Success leads to success and we needed to learn how to play hard for that long.”