Cyclones blow away UW

MINNEAPOLIS – It took a few minutes for Iowa State and its fervent fan base to settle in at Williams Arena.

Once the 3-pointers started falling and the crowd started rocking, Washington didn’t stand a chance.

Nicky Wieben scored 11 of her 18 points in the second half and Toccara Ross added 12 points to lead the sixth-seeded Cyclones to a 79-60 victory over 11th-seeded Washington in the opening round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday.

Iowa State (26-8) overcame a shoddy start by shutting down Huskies star Cameo Hicks early. Hicks finished with 19 points for Washington (18-13), but missed seven of her first nine shots and didn’t get going until the game was out of reach midway through the second half.

“In the first media timeout … I made them look at the fans, and I made them think about where they were,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “We were getting outhustled, ‘out-efforted,’ ‘out-everythinged’ early. When we got out of that state, we were fine.”

Iowa State was 15-1 at home this season, and there was nothing neutral about Williams Arena on Saturday. Thousands of red-clad Cyclones fans took a 3 1/2-hour bus ride up from Ames to cheer on their team, turning “The Barn” into Hilton Coliseum North.

But it was the Huskies who were the aggressors in the opening 5 minutes, dominating the offensive glass to take an early lead. Washington, which led the Pac-10 in offensive rebounds this season, grabbed three on its first possession and 10 in the first half. The Huskies also forced four turnovers in the opening minutes and jumped out to a 15-6 lead on a jumper from Jill Bell.

“It started out well,” Washington coach June Daugherty said. “We were all over the glass. But it seemed like it got away from us a little bit.”