WVU’s Jordan Harrison (10) scored 15 points during Sunday’s 83-70 win over No. 11 Iowa State. (Photo by BlueGoldNews.com)

MORGANTOWN — The WVU women’s basketball team officially became road warriors on Sunday, and along the way the Mountaineers defense and forward Kierra Wheeler made some major statements, as well.

The Mountaineers improved to 4-0 in true road games this season and Wheeler came out on the better end of her low-post showdown against Iowa State’s Audi Crooks, as West Virginia ran past the 11th-ranked Cyclones for an 83-70 victory inside Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.

It was West Virginia’s third consecutive win against Iowa State (14-3, 2-3 Big 12), and they handed the Cyclones their third straight loss of the season.

In all, the Cyclones were added to a road victim’s list of WVU that also includes Big 12 foes Kansas and Kansas State, as well as Texas A&M from the SEC.

“Our willingness to stick together. We wanted this bad,” Wheeler said after the game about WVU’s success this season away from Morgantown. “We lost to Texas Tech (on Wednesday) in the fourth quarter. Today, we came out and said we’re not going to lose another one to a ranked team in the fourth quarter.”

Wheeler finished with a season-high 25 points and the forward added seven rebounds, as she went point-for-point with Crooks, the nation’s leading scorer. Crooks finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, but she was held scoreless and didn’t attempt a shot in the third quarter, as the Mountaineers (14-3, 4-1) began to pull away.

It was also WVU’s second win against a top 15-ranked team this season, which also includes a win against then-No. 15 Duke earlier this season.

“We’re good enough to stay with anybody,” Wheeler said. “That’s the kind of determination we had today.”

West Virginia’s defense also played a major role, as the Cyclones turned the ball over 25 times, giving WVU 19 more field-goal attempts for the game.

The Mountaineers lasted through a fast-paced first half that saw WVU take a 40-39 lead at the break. Iowa State made nearly 52% of its shots over the first 20 minutes and West Virginia was just under that at 47.2%. Wheeler had 16 points at halftime and Crooks had 13, but the Mountaineers also had point guard Jordan Harrison get off to a fast start with 10 points and her 3-pointer at the buzzer gave WVU the one-point lead at the half.

It became a different story in the third quarter, as WVU began the second half on a 9-0 run, forcing Iowa State to play from behind the rest of the way. West Virginia eventually ran its lead up to as many as 17 midway through the fourth quarter.

Iowa State played without starting guard Addy Brown, but teammate Sydney Harris filled in for her nicely. In just her second start of the season, Harris finished with 15 points, but the Mountaineers just kept making shot after shot in the second half.

WVU made 55.2% (16 of 29) of its shots in the second half and Harrison finished with 19 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Carter McCray added nine points and Sydney Shaw scored eight for the Mountaineers, who return home to face No. 13 TCU at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

It will be a showdown of two of the top teams in the Big 12 and two schools looking to keep pace with undefeated Texas Tech. TCU’s only loss of the season was an upset defeat at the hands of Utah last week.