Iowa State Iowa State/Colorado Colorado Women's College Basketball recap on ESPN

The Buffaloes (No. 21 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 AP), who lost to Iowa State by 34 less than three weeks ago, got 37 points from their starting guards and made 22 of 23 free throws in a 73-66 victory over the Cyclones on Wednesday night.

After the final horn, Jenny Roulier jumped into Britt Hartshorn's arms as Colorado (18-5, 9-3 Big 12) celebrated at midcourt.

"This says a lot about our team's confidence after what they did to us in Ames," Colorado coach Ceal Barry said. "It takes a tremendous amount of courage and a tremendous amount of character. ... This is justice. They have been through so much."

Roulier scored 20 points, Mandy Nightingale had 17 and Hartshorn 15 to lead the Buffs, who won despite a 1-for-22 shooting drought during a 15-minute span of the first and second halves.

Colorado, sixth nationally in free throw accuracy (77 percent), countered its 32 percent shooting by hitting its last 16 free throws – including six in the final 46 seconds.

"Everybody has pride," Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. "Obviously we played a great game at our place, and I'm sure they were reminded of that a lot over the last couple weeks. This was a game that they were very prepared to play."

Angie Welle led Iowa State (20-3, 10-2) with 17 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 46 seconds left. Lindsey Wilson added 17 points and Megan Taylor had 15 as five Cyclones accounted for all 66 points.

"It's so frustrating," Welle said. "Turnovers, rebounding, passing the ball – we didn't do anything tonight. For some reason we didn't do what we were told and came out with a loss."

Iowa State had won its previous five games by an average of 25 points but never led after the game's first two minutes.

Playing a tight man-to-man defense, Colorado limited the Cyclones to 9-for-25 shooting from 3-point range, a sharp contrast to the game in Ames when Iowa State went 12-for-15 on 3-pointers.

"We picked up our defense the way we know how to play," Nightingale said. "I wanted to redeem myself. My player (Wilson) had 20 points (last game). I played her tough tonight."

Colorado led by 15 with 8:29 remaining before the Cyclones used a 16-4 to get within three on a 3-pointer by Taylor with 1:08 left.

Linda Lappe made two free throws on Colorado's next possession and hit two more after an Iowa State turnover. The Cyclones, who fell behind No. 10 Oklahoma (20-4, 11-1) in the Big 12 Conference race, got only one more basket on Wilson's driving layup with 32 seconds left.

Lappe, an Iowa native, said she planned on calling her family as soon as possible in the wake of last month's humbling loss at Iowa State.

"The fact that they beat us so bad, that's embarrassing not only for me but for the whole program," Lappe said. "We didn't want to keep it close. We wanted to win."

Trailing by 13 at halftime, Iowa State scored the first 10 points of the second half to pull to 41-38 as Colorado missed seven straight shots to open the half.

The Buffaloes regrouped with eight straight points and took their biggest lead, 63-48, on consecutive low-post baskets by Hartshorn.

Colorado, which had lost seven straight to Iowa State, hit its first four 3-point shots and led by 13 in the game's first 10 minutes before managing just one field goal over the next 10 minutes.

Iowa State was able to cut the deficit to seven during Colorado's dry spell, but 13 turnovers hindered the comeback and the Cyclones trailed 41-28 at the break.

"When you're down 13 points, you can't expect to come back on the road," Welle said. "We can't be streaky like that. We can't turn it off and turn it on. That's what we're doing right now."

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