Cedar Falls, Ia. — Kelsey Bolte got comfortable in a hurry in her first visit to the McLeod Center.

The Iowa State sophomore poured in 11 points in the first 3 minutes 13 seconds to help the Cyclones break to a 16-1 lead as they rolled to a 79-54 women’s basketball victory at Northern Iowa. Bolte made 4-of-5 shots, including three 3-pointers, during her opening flurry.

“We talk a lot about the first four minutes of a game,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “I don’t think anyone anticipated that four minutes. Kelsey Bolte was unbelievably on fire and we defended great.”

Bolte finished with 17 points, six under her carer high, in 22 minutes. “They were just getting me the ball on the fast break and I was spotting it up and shooting it,” she said.

Iowa State (2-0) opened its lead to 25-5. Northern Iowa (1-1) responded with a 10-0 spurt behind six points from K.K. Armstrong and four from Kim Wypiszynski, but the rally was short-lived.

The Cyclones scored the next eight points while holding Northern Iowa scoreless for nearly six minutes to ignite a 26-4 streak. They led 39-19 at halftime, and scored the first 12 points of the second half to build a 51-19 advantage with 16:51 to play.

“When you make a mistake, they will make you pay, and we made several mistakes,” Northern Iowa coach Tanya Warren said. “They’re a very good team.

“We were impatient. We were shooting after the first pass.”

Northern Iowa was without three injured players — guards Jacqui Kalin, Rachel Madrigal and forward Erin Brocka. Playing before a crowd of 2,320, the Panthers made just 2-of-19 shots in the first 10 minutes while Iowa State was 10-of-16.

“In the beginning of the game we didn’t execute defensively and that fed into our offense,” Wypiszynski said. “We just had a tough time getting things to click.”
Iowa State guard Heather Ezell said that Bolte’s hot start set the tone for the Cyclones.

“When you have someone on fire like that at the beginning of the game, it’s nice,” Iowa State guard Heather Ezell said. “We were able to get the ball to her when she was open and she knocked them down, which was huge for us. It got us a lead to start the game.

“It’s always nice to get that lead. Everybody calms down a little, gets some confidence going and we got a little momentum going our way.”

Ezell scored 13 points and Amanda Nisleit had 11 for Iowa State.

Reserve Indy Uhlenhopp led Northern Iowa with 12 points.

Iowa State finished with a 53-29 rebounding advantage and shot 48.3 percent.

The game marked the return for Iowa State of senior forward Toccara Ross, who had knee surgery in December and arthroscopic surgery in October. Ross played 12 minutes and scored two points.

“The knee feels great,” Ross said. “The ‘scope definitely helped a lot.”

Iowa State will be at Creighton on Sunday while Northern Iowa’s next game is Tuesday at home against Western Illinois.