Iowa State Iowa State/Northern Iowa N. Iowa Women's College Basketball recap on ESPN

In a sizzling display, Iowa State (No. 6 ESPN/USA Today, No. 5 AP) made nine straight 3-point shots in the first half and finished 17-of-24 from behind the arc in beating Northern Iowa 97-73 Wednesday night.

"That was a shooting performance that obviously was amazing to watch," Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. "Once they started going in, they just kept raining in."

Tracy Gahan went 6-for-7 on 3s and scored 22 points to Iowa State (9-0). Lindsey Wilson made all six of her 3-point shots in scoring 21 and Megan Taylor added 19 points, including three 3-pointers.

Angie Welle and Erica Haugen each scored 10 for the Cyclones, who have topped 90 points in three of their last four games.

The game was played at the UNI-Dome, where Northern Iowa plays football, and visiting teams often have trouble shooting there because of the spacious background. Not Iowa State, which shot better from 3-point range (70.8 percent) than from inside the arc (45.7 percent).

"If you follow women's basketball, there are two teams in the last couple of years with Connecticut and Tennessee and really the third team is a long, long ways away," Northern Iowa coach Tony DiCecco said.

"Iowa State, in may estimation, gave a Tennessee-Connecticut type effort. They had every single phase of their game going."

To make sure it had a good feel for the court, Iowa State shot at the UNI-Dome for 45 minutes Tuesday night and again for an hour on Wednesday. Those sessions paid off.

"It was just great for us," Gahan said. "Lindsey hit it and then somebody else and then it was somebody else. We just kind of fed off each other and we just got in that rhythm and it seemed like no one could miss."

Abbi Schutte's 22 points lead Northern Iowa (5-3), which upset then-No. 24 Illinois earlier this month but was no match for Iowa State's red-hot shooters.

The crowd of 4,048 was the largest ever for a Northern Iowa home game, and the home fans had reason to cheer early.

Taking an advantage of a technical foul on Fennelly, who was protesting a charging foul on Welle, Northern Iowa jumped to an 11-3 lead as all five starters scored.

That's when Iowa State started to heat up from the perimeter. Haugen made a baseline jumper from just inside the 3-point line and Wilson followed with three straight 3-pointers, triggering a 17-0 run that put Iowa State ahead to stay.

The Cyclones went on to make their next six shots from behind the arc in building a 48-26 lead. When Taylor finally missed from 3-point range, Gahan got the rebound and laid it in.

Northern Iowa did a good job on Welle, who came in averaging 18.4 points and shooting 70.5 percent. The Panthers forced Welle away from the basket and she made only 3-of-7 shots while battling foul trouble.

But Northern Iowa could not keep up with Iowa State's crisp passing on the perimeter, which created numerous open shots for Wilson, Gahan and Taylor.

"We were ready to go," Schutte said. "We wanted to show them that we could play with them and I think we did. But once they started hitting their threes, we kind of got down and we didn't respond very well in the end."

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Women's College Basketball Scoreboard

Iowa State Clubhouse

Northern Iowa Clubhouse