AMES – Hannah Belanger opened Iowa State’s 78-60 win over Southern with a 3-pointer less than 20 seconds into the game.
There was a feel to the Hilton Coliseum crowd that it was a sign of things to come. It had seen Iowa State teams of the past run away with these games.
“The consistency was the challenge,” Fennelly said of his team.
The Cyclones started the game shooting 9-14 in the first quarter, but couldn’t build onto the lead as much as they had hoped.
“I’ll say (during a halftime speech) ‘O.K., look, you’re up 22 at half, lets get that to 30 or 40.’ The challenge is understanding that that’s going to matter (against tougher competition).”
And that competition will ramp up at the end of this week.
“That can’t happen, especially when our schedule is going to ramp up and we’re going to get into Big 12 play,” Audi Crooks, who finished with 16 points and six rebounds, said. “Those possessions matter…those are points that are going off our side and going to theirs’s.”
Fennelly took part of the blame for the disruption, as well.
“Part of the disjointed parts of the game were my fault. We were trying to play some different combinations with some kids in there at different times and it disrupted the flow of the game. That’s on me. I thought we got better, overall, as a team.
The lead Iowa State did build up was enough at least to try some new combinations and rotations to its lineup while in the in-game atmosphere.
Kelsey Joens earned her first start as a Cyclone at the point guard position, in place for fellow freshman Arianna Jackson.
“Kelsey Joens plays as hard or harder than anyone on the team, every play. She’s one of those kids where every time she’s near the ball, something happens. Sometimes that’s good for us, and sometimes that’s good for (the other team). She’s not a very big kid, but she competes like crazy.”
“She earned it,” Fennelly said. “Part of the issue we had tonight is that 24 minutes isn’t enough for her.”
The longtime head coach believes that Joens needs to be on the floor more often because of the effort she puts out.
Fennelly typically puts a lot of stock in his starting lineups and the importance they can play, but noted that it wasn’t about anything that Jackson did or didn’t do.
“During the last game, we got in some really bad foul trouble, so you have to be kind of thinking ahead, about who we’ve got in this lineup. We wanted to get some certain people together (in the case of) foul trouble.”
Iowa State will see its competition pick up over the weekend, with a pair of games slated for the South Point Shootout in Las Vegas against Vanderbilt and Syracuse.
