San Francisco Usf/Iowa State Iowa State Women's College Basketball recap on ESPN

After watching Iowa State beat her team 87-60 on Sunday, San Francisco coach Mary Hile-Nepfel said the Cyclones (No. 7 ESPN/USA Today, No. 5 Associated Press) are good enough to get there.

"They've got a lot of weapons," Hile-Nepfel said. "They can go inside and they can kick it back outside. They have a system and they run it well. They're going to be hard to stop."

Iowa State (8-0) shot a season-high 59.6 percent, including 10-for-17 from 3-point range, and has scored at least 81 points in all but one game this season. But coach Bill Fennelly just laughed when told of Hile-Nepfel's comment.

"I've known Mary for a long time and after the game she said, 'I'll see you at the Final Four.' I said, 'Yeah, we'll go to dinner,"' Fennelly said. "She said, 'No, I mean I'll see your team.' That was nice of her to say. It's probably an exaggeration, but that's OK. We'll take it."

Angie Welle scored 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting to lead the Cyclones, who could not shake San Francisco (3-4) in the first half despite shooting 60 percent and outrebounding the Lady Dons 22-16.

But a 28-4 run in the first 10:20 of the second half settled the outcome and Fennelly soon began pulling his starters.

"We weren't too happy with how we played in the first half," Iowa State's Lindsey Wilson said. "I think we just decided in the second half we were going to come out and play even harder. Ten points wasn't enough, so we decided to build on that."

Wilson made seven of 10 shots, mostly driving layups, and scored 16 points. Tracy Gahan, 5-for-6 from the field, scored 14 points and Megan Taylor 11.

San Francisco entered the game shooting 42 percent from 3-point range and moved the ball well at times against Iowa State's 2-3 zone, but couldn't make its shots. The Lady Dons were 7-for-28 from beyond the arc and shot only 32 percent overall.

Kim Whisler's 20 points led San Francisco, which lost for the fourth time in five games.

Iowa State led 44-33 at halftime, and San Francisco cut the lead to nine points when Whisler scored the first basket of the second half. But the Lady Dons made only two shots over the next 9 1/2 minutes and Iowa State got its transition game going.

Wilson hit a 3-pointer and Welle had five points in a 10-0 run that made it 54-35. It was 57-39 when Iowa State ran off 15 straight points, including 3-pointers by Erica Junod and Erica Haugen and a three-point play by Welle, who's shooting 70.5 percent for the season. "I think running like that always gets us going," Welle said. "Teams get a little worn out and we kind of feed off that. We get on a roll. I think it just carries over to your defense, it carries over to your offense."

Wilson converted a three-point play off a layup to give Iowa State its biggest lead, 75-41, with 8:47 left.

Whisler scored San Francisco's first three baskets of the second half. No other San Francisco player scored in the half until Melanie Turner hit a jump shot from the baseline with 9:13 left.

"Once they got in their rhythm, you feel like you've got to come down and score quickly because you're behind," Hile-Nepfel said. "I felt like there was still enough time in the half that we should have shown more patience and we didn't do that."

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Women's College Basketball Scoreboard

San Francisco Clubhouse

Iowa State Clubhouse