No. 6 Oklahoma 67, Iowa St. 64

1/9/2008 10:24 PM

By LUKE MEREDITH
AP Sports Writer

AMES, Iowa (AP) -Iowa State had Oklahoma in a scenario opponents dream about: the Cyclones held a second-half lead and Courtney Paris was on the bench in foul trouble.

What Iowa State hadn't counted on was the rest of the Sooners picking up the slack.

Freshman Danielle Robinson scored a career-high 23 points and No. 6 Oklahoma survived a late 11-0 run by Iowa State to beat the Cyclones 67-64 on Wednesday night in a rematch of last season's Big 12 title game.

The Sooners (10-2, 1-0 Big 12) picked up their 10th straight win despite a subpar night from Paris, who spent most of the second half on the bench because of foul trouble. Paris finished with 12 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks, but was just 4-for-11 from the field.

But Oklahoma, led by Robinson and Ashley Paris - Courtney's twin sister - turned a one-point deficit into a 60-53 lead while Paris was out of the game.

``I thought it showed a lot about the character of our young guys in that stretch,'' Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. ``That bodes well for us in the future. Every time you can survive something like that, you can withstand it, it helps your confidence.''

The Cyclones saw their home winning streak snapped at 15 games. But they didn't go down without a fight.

Down 10 with 4:46 left, Iowa State (11-3, 0-1) went on an 11-0 run to take a 61-60 lead. Amanda Nisleit tied the game with a 3, and freshman Kelsey Bolte gave the Cyclones the lead on a free throw with 54.5 seconds left.

But Courtney Paris, a 51 percent free-throw shooter, hit two from the line to give the Sooners a 62-61 lead. Iowa State turned the ball over on its next possession, and Jenna Plumley and Amanda Thompson later hit free throws to make it 66-62.

Allison Lacey then hit a pair from the line to bring Iowa State within three, but her 3-point try at the buzzer just barely rimmed out.

Bolte led Iowa State with a career-high 23 points. The Cyclones went just 15-for-24 from the free-throw line, missing two from the line in the final 17 seconds.

``There's a lot of things that happened in the game. The bottom line is we couldn't make a free throw,'' Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. ``The thing that's discouraging is you do a lot of the other things to give yourself a chance to win.''

The Cyclones took a 37-36 lead on a runner by Bolte, who scored 13 of Iowa State's first 21 points in the second half. Paris then picked up her fourth foul with 13:27 left and was forced to the bench for the stretch run.

The Sooners didn't buckle. Ashley Paris kicked off a 19-6 run with three inside scores to put Oklahoma ahead 55-46 with 6:46 to play. Robinson then followed a Plumley 3 with an underhanded layup to push Oklahoma's lead to 60-50.

``When she goes out, I know that I have to have a sense of urgency. I try to replace some of what Courtney left when goes,'' Paris said. ``Everybody just stepped up.''

Courtney Paris re-entered the game with 3:09 left, but she couldn't stop Iowa State from retaking the lead.

This was the second straight impressive outing for Robinson, who had 20 points in a win over South Carolina on Dec. 30. She was 10-for-16 from the floor against the Cyclones.

``She's clearly very good, isn't she?'' Coale said. ``I thought in the second half she looked like a junior. Made better decisions, took better shots.''

Oklahoma missed 12 of its first 14 shots from the field and turned the ball over six times in the opening 8 minutes. Despite that, the Sooners led 25-19 at the break because of a sizable rebounding edge.

Nyeshia Stevenson made a 3 and a layup and Rose Hammond added a jumper to help give Oklahoma a 23-15 lead late in the opening half. The Sooners outrebounded the Cyclones 28-16 in the first half, with 18 of those coming from the Paris twins.

Courtney Paris picked up her 73rd straight double-double, but she scored below her season average for the fourth straight game. Iowa State certainly knows what she's capable of, as Paris scored 23 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in Oklahoma's 67-60 win over Iowa State in the 2007 conference championship game.

She wasn't able to duplicate that feat against the Cyclones. But her teammates, often overlooked, did just enough to keep Oklahoma on track.

``We feel very, very fortunate to get on the bus, to get on the plane, to go back to Norman with the win,'' Coale said. ``We got a little bit lucky, but we'll take it.''