Iowa State guard Ashleigh Connor (15) drives to the basket between Eastern Illinois guards Janyah Bohanon (23) and Ava Stoller (3) during the first quarter of an NCAA women’s basketball game at Hilton Coliseum on Nov. 8, 2026, in Ames, Iowa. (Photo/Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune, USA TODAY Network)

Rob Gray | Cyclone Fanatic

AMES — There’s one overarching reason Iowa State recruited Mya Babbitt out of the transfer portal.

She can flat-out shoot the basketball.

And Babbitt’s been a hot-shooting star off the bench in her first season as a Cyclone — and her 4-for-6 performance from beyond the arc helped fuel Sunday’s 77-61 win over Eastern Illinois at Hilton Coliseum.

“That’s what I’m here to do,” said Babbitt, a Kent State transfer who scored 18 points on just nine field goal attempts for ISU (3-0).

Babbitt’s drained 12 of her 21 3-point attempts this season, while her teammates are a combined 4-for-38 from long range through three games. Sunday, 13 of her 18 points came in the second half, which helped the Cyclones pull away from the Panthers (0-3) after holding a narrow 33-31 lead at halftime.

“I think the challenge is trying to create offense so that you don’t have just one shooter,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. “So they can’t just chase he roff her shot. And the one thing Mya’s worked really hard on is she can get to the basket once in a while and she kind of makes those funky, running, scooping layups.”

Speaking of layups, the Cyclones’ interior players made plenty of them on Sunday. Tjasa Turnsek scored a game-high 20 points, Xiao Zhang notched 14 points in less than 13 minutes, and Gift Ezekiel totaled 12 points in under 14 minutes. Versatile forward Alex-Anne Bessette chipped in seven points and three assists, as well, which helped the Cyclones build a decisive 38 to 16 edge in points in the paint — despite facing Eastern’s 6-10 post player, Abbie Boutllier, who blocked three shots before fouling out.

“We were gonna get blocked if she was in the key so the goal was to get her out,” Bessette said. “Communication — like we know one high, one low, we dive — but with (Boutilier), if we could keep her away from the rim, that’s what we needed to do.”

ISU also knew it needed to take care of the basketball better than it did in its first two wins and accomplished that goal, two. The Cyclones lost just seven turnovers on Sunday and outscored the Panthers, 15-6, in points off those miscues.

“I mean, there (have) been times when we’re going five on zero and we’d have seven turnovers,” said Fennelly, who saw his new point guard, Sienna Harvey, notch her second nine-assist game of the young season. “So Sienna’s done a nice job of taking care of the ball.”

Just as Babbitt’s done a stand-up job of knocking down long-range shots while her teammates try to find a rhythm from beyond the arc. That, as she said, is what she’s “here to do,” and some positive signs on the 3-point front are bubbling up elsewhere. Standout returning guard Arianna Jackson finally hit a 3 after going scoreless in the first two games, and she’s a career 40 percent 3-point shooter. So she’ll almost certainly help ISU find that second outside shooter as the schedule toughens.

“We’ve gotta keep learning,” Fennelly said. “We’ve gotta keep getting better.”