WBB: Cyclones flutter down the stretch in Morgantown, suffer second straight Big 12 Loss

The Iowa State women’s basketball team fell to West Virginia 73-64 in Morgantown on Wednesday.

The loss is No. 18 Iowa State’s second in a row in the Big 12 after dropping last Saturday’s game at home against Texas.

It drops the Cyclones to 13-4 on the season and 3-2 in Big 12 play.

Things started off slowly on Wednesday as Iowa State opened up with a 1-7 mark from the three-point line and shot 27.8% from the field in the first quarter.

That gave the Mountaineers a 20-13 lead going into the first break.

The second quarter is where Iowa State turned things around, however, as they have so well over the past nine games.

They outscored West Virginia 17-11 in the second to close their deficit to just one point going into halftime, in large part due to the play of Bridget Carleton.

After an Alexa Middleton steal and a Madison Wise three-pointer, the Cyclones forced WVU to call a timeout, while the Mountaineers held a 27-18 lead.

Over the next two minutes and 30 seconds, Carleton put on a clinic.

The senior all-American candidate scored 12 points in a row by way of two 3-balls, two layups, and a pair of free throws.

The Chatham, Ontario, Canada native finished the night with 26 points and passed Hallie Christofferson (1,709) for sixth on the all-time scoring list at Iowa State. Carleton now has 1,727 career points and is 62 points behind Tonya Burns for fifth.

With the 31-30 lead at the half, West Virginia was clinging to the big lead it had early on, which was 12 points at one time.

The Cyclones came out fighting in the third.

Between four points from Kristin Scott and another Carleton 3-pointer, Iowa State led 43-36 with 5:30 to play in the quarter.

That would go on to be Iowa State’s biggest lead of the game, though.

After a timeout, West Virginia came storming back, eventually ending the quarter down 48-46 to the Cyclones.

Between the final part of the third quarter and beginning part of the fourth, the Cyclones went 4:53 scoreless and surrendered the lead to West Virginia early on.

The teams battled back and forth, but the Cyclones were ultimately outshot by West Virginia, dropping their fourth road game of the season. With the loss, Iowa State’s record on the road falls to 1-3.

The Cyclones will return to the court and Hilton Coliseum on Saturday when they take on Oklahoma at noon. The game will be televised by Cyclones.tv.