Thursday, March 15Cyclones draw Howard in first round
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Iowa State's fans routinely turn Big 12 Conference tournament games into virtual home games. The Cyclones rewarded that loyalty with the real thing – home dates in the NCAA women's tournament. Iowa State's 68-65 win over Oklahoma on Saturday night earned the Cyclones (25-5) their second straight tournament championship, and a No. 2 seeding in the NCAA Midwest Regional. They'll play 15th-seeded Howard (21-9) in the first round. The Sooners – who won the regular-season championship by two games – and Texas Tech also earned No. 2 seeds on Sunday as the Big 12 was awarded seven bids, most in the NCAA. Oklahoma (26-5) will play host to in-state opponent Oral Roberts (20-10) in the first round of the West Regional, and Texas Tech (23-6) will be at home against Pennsylvania (22-5) in the Mideast. Colorado was seeded sixth in the Midwest Regional, where the Buffaloes (21-8) will face 11th-seeded Siena (24-5) in the first round. Baylor (20-8), seeded eighth in the West Regional, meets Arkansas (19-10) in the first round. Texas (19-12) also earned a No. 8 seed and will take on St. Mary's (Calif.) in the Mideast Regional. Only Missouri was seeded in the bottom half of its bracket. The Tigers (19-9), the No. 10 seed in the East Regional, meet seventh-seeded Wisconsin (18-9) in the first round. Iowa State center Angie Welle, who scored 13 points and hit a critical late free throw in the final, was the tournament MVP. But it was senior guard Megan Taylor's name that the Cyclones fans – about 6,000 strong in an announced crowd of 8,153 – were chanting as the nets came down. She hit six 3-pointers and scored 28 points, both records for the title game, and became Iowa State's No.1 career scorer. "When it comes to winning time, there isn't anybody I'd rather have shooting the shots than her," Cyclones coach Bill Fennelly said. Taylor's biggest play might have come at the defensive end, when Oklahoma had cut the Cyclones' double-digit lead to 67-65 and had the ball out of bounds with 6.7 seconds left. Taylor deflected the inbound pass off the leg of Oklahoma's Stacey Dales, and it went out of bounds to give Iowa State possession. Welle hit a free throw with 5.1 seconds left and Oklahoma's Sunny Hardeman missed a 3-point try as time ran out. "Megan Taylor was terrific," Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. "They did a great job in transition and really put the pressure on us. I sure would like to have had that inbounds over again – I think we would have scored." Both teams shot poorly early in the closest championship game in the conference's five-year history. The Cyclones were 1-for-8 in the opening minutes, while the top-seeded Sooners, playing in their first Big 12 final, missed 14 of their first 15 shots and went almost eight minutes without a field goal in the first half. "I think everybody came into this game thinking it was going to be 105-103, and the first half was the exact opposite of that," Coale said. Dales and Jamie Talbert led Oklahoma with 14 points each. LaNeishea Caufield added 11. Erica Haugen scored 11 points for Iowa State, which got 12 rebounds – 10 in the first half – from Tracy Gahan. Taylor, Dales, Iowa State's Lindsey Wilson and Oklahoma's Rosalind Ross joined Welle on the all-tournament team.
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