AMES — Ashley Joens came up with a key blocked shot in the closing seconds as the No. 15 Iowa State women’s basketball team needed a defensive stand to hold off Northern Iowa, 70-69, on Sunday night.

UNI’s Emerson Green hit a 3-pointer with 1:11 left, then followed with a three-point play with 34 seconds to play to get Northern Iowa within one, 70-69. Iowa State’s Lexi Donarski was stripped in the backcourt by Karli Rucker and then Donarski knocked the ball away from Rucker under the UNI basket to prevent the go-ahead layup, but the Panthers retained possession. Kam Finley’s jumper from the lane was blocked by Joens.

Northern Iowa took a 20-17 lead after a quarter before the Cyclones went on a 17-3 run through the second quarter and took a 34-23 lead at the half, but the Panthers whittled away at the deficit the rest of he way.

Finley hit two 3-pointers and Bre Gunnels nailed a third to pull Northern Iowa within three, 57-54 with just less than eight minutes left. After the Panthers cut the deficit to two with a 3-pointer by Sara McCullough with 4:55 to play, Donarski and Aubrey Jones hit back-to-back 3s and Ashley Joens knocked down a 3 following a Rucker jumper to make it 70-61 with 2:14 to play.

“A terrific battle. I’m extremely proud of our team,” said UNI head coach Tanya Warren. “As I told them, I couldn’t be more proud of them, I wouldn’t be more proud of them if we won the game. I liked our fight. We challenged them at halftime and I thought we answered the call. We got the shot that we wanted in the end, it just didn’t fall.”

Donarski hit 4 of 5 from 3-point range and finished with 19 points and eight rebounds to lead Iowa State (10-1). Morgan Kane finished with 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Ashley Joens scored 12 points and had eight rebounds.

Finley hit 6 of 8 3-pointers and scored a season-high 28 points to lead the Panthers (6-3). Green added 15 points off the UNI bench and Grace Boffeli had 10 points and eight rebounds.

No. 15 Iowa St. 70, UNI 69

N. IOWA (6-3) — Boffeli 5-11 0-0 10, Gunnels 1-2 0-0 3, Finley 10-16 2-3 28, Kroeger 0-2 0-0 0, Rucker 4-14 0-0 8, Barney 0-0 0-0 0, McCullough 2-5 0-0 5, Morgan 0-1 0-0 0, Green 5-12 4-5 15, Laube 0-1 0-0 0, McDermott 0-3 0-0 0, Team 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 27-67 6-8 69.

IOWA ST. (10-1) — Kane 6-7 1-1 13, Donarski 6-13 3-4 19, Aubrey Joens 2-5 0-0 6, Ashley Joens 4-16 2-2 12, Ryan 2-8 0-0 5, Jordao 4-5 0-1 8, Espenmiller-McGraw 2-4 2-2 7, Team 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 26-58 8-10 70.

N. IOWA 20 3 22 24 — 69

Iowa St. 17 17 18 18 — 70

3-Point Goals–UNI 9-27 (Boffeli 0-3, Gunnels 1-1, Finley 6-8, Kroeger 0-1, Rucker 0-1, McCullough 1-4, Green 1-6, McDermott 0-3), Iowa St. 10-24 (Donarski 4-5, Au.Joens 2-3, As.Joens 2-6, Ryan 1-7, Espenmiller-McGraw 1-3). Assists–UNI 15 (Rucker 6), Iowa St. 18 (Ryan 9). Fouled Out–None. Rebounds–UNI 38 (Boffeli 8), Iowa St. 37 (Kane 11). Total Fouls–UNI 19, Iowa St. 7. A–9,726.