Hoyt and Milton Talk Importance of Iowa State Game Wednesday

STILLWATER – Don’t look now but in here first year as head coach Jacie Hoyt is on her way to becoming the Big 12 Coach of the Year, but Hoyt could care less about that or that 100-game mark she hit in her coaching career on Saturday in the triple overtime 92-80 win at Texas Tech. Hoyt is too  excited about what’s coming. She even downplayed the current five-game win streak her team extended with just the program’s second time going three overtimes. 

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Hoyt talks to the media.

“It’s something for you all  (media) to talk about,” Hoyt said of the streak. “We’ve just been focused each game on going 1-0, and that is ultimately what got us to the point that we’re at right now. Every game from here on out is going to be as tough as any of them.”

That next one is Iowa State at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday night. The Cowgirls and Iowa State are currently 9-5 and tied for third-place in the Big 12. Hoyt and her team are looking for some revenge against the Big 12’s dean of women’s basketball coaches in Bill Fennelly. 

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Bill Fennelly, head coach of Iowa State.

“I would even go a step further because of the respect that I have for Coach Fennelly, I grew up watching his teams when I was in high school and I have admired his work ever since,” Hoyt said. “It is very surreal for me to be on the other sideline going against him and I have so much respect for him. I’m ready to be home and get them at our place because it was a close game there and we were a little short-handed from illness. They were short-handed because they had just lost their center. We are both in a different place right now and are different from that first game.”

The game was close with Iowa State prevailing 69-64 back on Jan. 18. Back then the Cowgirls were just trying to get their heads and their Big 12 and season record above water.

“We are so much better because we had so much inconsistency because of missing players with illness and injury,” Hoyt explaine. “I thought after the Baylor win (at home Feb. 11) we have that consistency and continuity that we’d been looking for. Pieces are starting to fit and Kassidy (DeLapp) is playing better and Terryn is clicking and working so much better (at point guard). We are better and I think we’re much better defensively.”

Iowa State went through a season swoon losing three games in a row to Kansas State, Baylor, and West Virginia. They are rolling again now with wins over Texas and Baylor. This week they have the Big 12  Player of the Week in Ashley Joens (20.4 point per game) and the Big 12 Freshman of the Week in Denae Fritz (9.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game).

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Milton with a make in the win over Baylor.

Oklahoma State has a number of surgining players including Terryn Milton, who Hoyt said she would not trade for any other point guard in the Big 12.

“There are four games left and it kind of naturally comes,” Milton said of the late season urgency. “The end of the year is the most exciting time and we’re not thinking so much the end as much as there is so much to do. We want to accomplish something big and do something here that has never been done before.”

That means postseason like winning the Big 12 Tournament or making a second weekend extension in the NCAA, now those are special and this team is capable. Iowa State first though.