The Kansas City Star
Alison Lacey trudged to the Iowa State bench at Bramlage Coliseum on Jan. 23. Worst night of the season? You bet.
The Cyclones were in the midst of an 80-49 blowout loss at Kansas State. A week earlier at Texas, Iowa State had lost Nicky Wieben because of a season-ending knee injury. The Cyclones’ other starting post player, Toccara Ross, had gone out for the year because of a knee injury in December.
Combine that with the graduation of two other starters, including all-Big 12 point guard Lyndsey Medders, and the weight of the program suddenly seemed like it was on Lacey’s shoulders.
A sophomore from Canberra, Australia, Lacey wasn’t sure if she was ready for this.
However …
“Whether I was ready or not, it was going to come,” Lacey said Tuesday after Iowa State’s 76-50 first-round victory over Colorado in the Big 12 tournament. “I had to get ready. And everyone else had to step up, too.”
Lacey will lead the eighth-seeded Cyclones against top-seeded K-State at noon today. It will be the teams’ third meeting this season, and the first two didn’t go so well for Lacey.
She played just 17 minutes at Manhattan, going one of seven from the floor and scoring just two points.
“I thought she hit as low a point as she’s hit since I’ve been coaching her,” Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly said of that game. “I think all good players can go through it — the combination of not playing well and feeling sorry for herself.”
In this season in which nothing’s come easy for the Cyclones, the one thing that Fennelly has told his team over and over is this: no self-pity. Yeah, we got clobbered by injuries. Yeah, we’re young and inexperienced. Yeah, it’s a tough, tough league. But play through it.
And that’s what the Cyclones have done. Iowa State is one of eight hosts for the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament. That won’t be in Ames, but in nearby Des Moines at Wells Fargo Arena. If the Cyclones are in the NCAA field, they are guaranteed to be assigned there. But the question for much of the season was whether they could cobble together enough victories to get a bid.
Now at 19-11, Iowa State looks like it has enough wins — and it may be Fennelly’s best coaching job. To look at the individual parts, frankly, you would question how the Cyclones are pulling this off. But to look at how they play as a team, you find the answer.
Ross and Wieben are talented and experienced. With them gone, players who were expected to be reserves — Jocelyn Anderson and Amanda Nisleit — had to step in as starters. Freshman Kelsey Bolte had to grow up quickly. Heather Ezell had to be a consistent three-point threat. And Lacey couldn’t goof up.
But when Iowa State and K-State had their rematch Feb. 13 in Ames, she did. The Cyclones played an outstanding defensive game, limiting K-State to 45 points. But that wasn’t enough to win, because Iowa State scored just 42. Lacey had the ball in her hands at the end of the game, and rather than taking a three-pointer to tie, she inexplicably drove to the basket.
Afterward, she cried in the press conference, but Fennelly couldn’t give her a break.
“That moment, she lost her focus,” he said of not taking a three. “And when you’re in that position as our point guard, you’re not allowed to do that. I told her, ‘You don’t have the luxury to make that mistake.’ ”
Lacey regrouped and helped the Cyclones to a 7-9 finish in the league. Considering the strength of the Big 12, that — plus their opening-round victory in the league tournament — should put them in good shape for a bid.
But a win today against K-State would really seal it.
“We’ve scored 49 and 42 against them, so we’re not an offensive juggernaut against them,” Fennelly said of the Wildcats. “(But) there is no pressure on this team. You’re playing the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Roll it out there and see what happens.”
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