No. 6 Sooners Sail Past Iowa State

Thursday, January 25th 2007, 6:20 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Chelsi Welch scored 13 points, Leah Rush added 12 and No. 6 Oklahoma did much of its damage with All-America center Courtney Paris on the bench in a 69-49 win against Iowa State on Wednesday night.

Paris notched her 46th straight double-double with a season-low 14 points and 13 rebounds, but it was during the 6-foot-2 sophomore's two rest periods in the first 35 minutes that Oklahoma took control.

The Sooners (17-1, 7-0 Big 12) outscored Iowa State 24-3 in those spans on their way to their 26th straight conference win. It was also Oklahoma's third win in five days, including a double-overtime victory against Texas Tech on Monday in a game rescheduled due to icy weather.

Megan Ronhovde scored 13 points to lead Iowa State (15-5, 3-4), and Lyndsey Medders had 10. Iowa State shot 32 percent and committed 19 turnovers.

Immediately after Paris headed to the bench with 16:18 left to play, Rush scored six straight points to start a 14-3 run that put the Sooners up 50-32. She hit a 3-pointer from the right wing, then added a three-point play after banking in an airborne layup off a lob pass. Britney Brown followed with a 3-pointer from the right wing, and Welch finished the spurt with two free throws and a 3-pointer from the left corner.

Before that, most of Oklahoma's lead got built during a first-half stretch while Paris was taking a breather. The Sooners took advantage of three Iowa State turnovers to score 10 straight points, and Paris then returned to add a layup and stretch the lead to 22-8.

Iowa State scored the final seven points of the half to get within 28-19, as Oklahoma went more than 5 minutes without a point.

The win was Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale's 100th at the Lloyd Noble Center.