MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia came into Sunday’s home game against Iowa State in the middle of a four-game losing streak. The Mountaineers ended the day with a convincing 79-71 win over the Cyclones.

Iowa State got off to a slow start and never led against the Mountaineers. West Virginia held a 23-16 lead after one quarter and was shooting well above its 40 percent season average. The Mountaineers singled out Ashley Joens and put a lot of effort toward making life difficult for the Big 12’s leading scorer, and it worked — Joens had 11 points and only took seven shots, finishing far below her 21.9 points per game average.

The Cyclones trailed at halftime 42-33 and had 12 first-half turnovers.

The second half was more of the same. The Cyclones struggled mightily to get shots to fall, shooting 41 percent for the game — although that was helped by a late fourth-quarter rally to get the score back within single digits. The Mountaineers, meanwhile, shot 50 percent from the floor and took 66 shots, 15 more than Iowa State. Why? Because of turnovers (Iowa State had 18 on the game) and offensive rebounds, of which the Mountaineers had nine.

The Cyclones were led by Kristin Scott, who had 16 points and hit three 3-pointers. Also scoring in double figures were Ines Nezerwa (13 points), Joens with 11 and Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw with 10 points.

West Virginia’s Kysre Gondrezick led all scorers with 21 points on 7-for-16 shooting.

Up next for the Cyclones (12-8, 4-5) is a week of home games against Oklahoma State on Wednesday and Oklahoma Saturday.

Drake 80, Loyola 52

DES MOINES — Four players scored in double figures and the Drake women’s basketball team remained unbeaten at home this season, defeating Loyola 80-52 in a Missouri Valley Conference clash Sunday afternoon at the Knapp Center.

Becca Hittner finished with a game-high 17 points, Sara Rhine had 14 points and nine rebounds, Maddie Monahan racked up 13 points and seven assists, and Maggie Negaard scored 12 points off the bench for the Bulldogs (15-6, 7-2).

Drake led from wire-to-wire in extending its home-court winning streak to 16 games. The Bulldogs made it 12-straight against Loyola by limiting the Ramblers (13-7, 4-5) to 33.3 percent shooting for the game (18-for-54). Loyola committed 22 turnovers in the loss.

Drake continues its four-game homestand next weekend with games Friday against Southern Illinois and Sunday against Missouri State.

UNI 77, Valparaiso 70

CEDAR FALLS — The Northern Iowa women’s basketball team improved to 8-0 at home by holding off Valparaiso 77-70 in Sunday’s MVC game at the McLeod Center.

The Panthers (13-7, 5-4) led by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter, but Valparaiso eventually made a 14-4 run that cut the deficit down to three, 70-67, with 2:46 left to play. UNI scored the next seven points, however, to put the game away. Karil Rucker sank a 3-pointer, and Abby Gerrits and Nicole Kroeger both made a pair of free throws to finish off the Crusaders (11-9, 3-6).

Kroeger scored a team-leading 18 points for UNI, making four of the team’s 13 3-pointers, and Rucker ended up with 17 points and five assists. Kristina Cavey came away with 12 points off the bench and Gerrits added 11.

Carie Weinman had a game-high 19 points to lead Valparaiso, which got all of its 70 points from its five starters.

Northern Iowa is back at home next weekend with games Friday against Missouri State and Sunday against Southern Illinois.