Ashley Joens scored a season-high 36 points and third-seeded Iowa State rallied to beat No. 14 seed UT Arlington 78-71 on Friday night in the first round of the women's NCAA Tournament.
The Mavericks were bidding to be the first 14-seed to ever win a game in the tournament and led by 12 in the first half before the Cyclones (27-6) came back.
Emily Ryan made a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 64 and followed with a layup to give the Cyclones the lead. Joens hit a 3-pointer that gave Iowa State a 73-67 cushion with 1:43 left and that was enough for Iowa State to avoid the upset.
Starr Jacobs finished with 19 points for the Mavericks (20-8).
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UT Arlington shot 67 percent in the first quarter and jumped to a 22-14 lead. A 3-pointer by Camryn Hawkins gave the Mavericks a 29-18 advantage early in the second period. Katie Ferrell followed with another 3-pointer to make it 37-25.
Iowa State rallied a bit with a 7-0 run. Joens, who had a career-best 41 points against Wright State on Dec. 15, 2019, hit the Cyclones' first 3-pointer of the night, closing the gap to 39-35.
UT Arlington was up 41-35 at halftime. The Cyclones finally went on top when another Joens 3-pointer gave Iowa State a 49-48 edge with 4:34 left in the third quarter.
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Joens and Ryan combined to score six points in the final minute of the period and Iowa State led 57-54 going into the fourth quarter.
HOME COURT
Iowa State now owns an all-time record of 12-5 when hosting a game at Hilton Coliseum. UT Arlington arrived Friday with an 0-2 record in the
NCAAs and had not beaten a Power Five school since November of 2019.
OFF-TARGET EARLY
Iowa State entered Friday's game shooting 38.9% from 3-point range, second-best in the nation. But the Cyclones missed their first eight attempts from behind the arc against UT Arlington.
STREAK CONTINUES
Fourteen seeds are now 0-109 since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994. A 15 seed has also never won a game.
UP NEXT
Iowa State advances to play No. 6 seed Georgia in a second-round matchup on Sunday.
