The Iowa State women fell behind early and were never able to overcome a hot-shooting Georgia team in falling in the second round of the NCAA Tournament 76-56 in Minneapolis.
Cyclone coach Bill Fennelly had hope his team’s late season hot streak would continue. He says they did not play well, but Georgia deserves credit as a great team.
Senior Cyclone guard Lindsey Medders says Georgia could do anything they wanted. She says they scored from inside, outside, from their halfcourt offense, from their transition offense. Medders led Iowa State with 13 points.
Iowa State forward Megan Ronhovde, says Georgia wrecked their game plan with a swarming defense. Ronhovde says Georgia was very aggressive and made it difficult to get the offense going.
Medders says it’s hard to realize that she’ll never play for Iowa State or coach Fennelly again Medders says: "What makes it hard is ending the way we did, ending the way I did. Not getting to play with these girls again. Not getting to play for him."
Fennelly says his players can be pleased with the season, despite the loss. Fennelly says when they look at what the team accomplished, there’ll be a great sense of pride for the wins and the way they conducted themselves. Fennelly says when the players eventually have time to think about it, they’ll realize what a great job they did.
Fennelly says he never thought they would end up with over 20 wins in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Fennelly says he didn’t think they had some of the key factors needed to make a deep run in their league and injuries and young players were also a factor.
But Fennelly says this season has set the tone for the future. Fennelly says he hopes next year’s team will see how this team fought back from adversity and won 9 of their last 11 games and won some big games along the way.
The Cyclones had a big late season run, getting the championship game of the Big 12 tournament before falling to Oklahoma, and then winning the first round NCAA game. Iowa State finishes the season at 26-19.