Women’s Basketball Downs No. 14 Iowa State

January 24, 1999

CLEMSON, S.C. – Nikki Blassingame scored 16 points and had 11 rebounds in leading 16th-ranked Clemson to a 81-72 win over 14th-ranked Iowa State in a women’s intercollegiate basketball game at Clemson, SC Sunday afternoon. This game was part of the ACC-Big 12 Challenge and Virginia is playing host to Baylor in the other battle of the two leagues later today.

With the win, Clemson improves to 16-3 overall, while Iowa State falls to 13-3 this season.

The Lady Tigers are ranked 16th in both the Associated Press and USA Today polls. Iowa State is ranked 14th in both the Associated Press and USA Today rankings. Blassingame was the leader among the five Clemson players who scored in double digits. Erin Batth had 13, Itoro Umoh scored 11, Natasha Anderson had 10, and Amy Geren finished the game with 15. Anderson also had 10 rebounds for the Lady Tigers.

The score was tied 45-45 with 14:35 remaining in the game as Clemson’s Erin Batth scored inside. From this point, Clemson went on a 7-0 run as the Lady Tigers took a 52-45 lead with 12:25 remaining. Angie Cossey scored a three point basket in this run for Clemson. Iowa State had a 7-2 rally as Megan Taylor scored five points for Iowa State narrowing the Lady Tigers’ advantage to 54-52 with 10:16 left.

Clemson outscored the Cyclones 18-10 and built its largest lead of 10 points, 72-62 with 3:45 remaining in the game. In this stretch for the the Lady Tigers, Nuria Forns came off the bench and hit two three-point field goals and scored a field goal from 15 feet out. Clemson hit 28-61 from the field for a .459 pct., while Iowa State finished the game 21-55 from the floor. Iowa State was also 11-29 from the three point line.

Megan Taylor scored 23 points for the Cyclones as she was 7-20 from the field, including 5-10 from the three-point line. Angie Welle and Taylor both had 11 rebounds each for Iowa State. Clemson will play at Maryland on Thursday in the Lady Tigers’ next action.