Madison Wood is a long drink of water for the Kirkwood women's basketball team at 6-foot-3.

Long and lean.

"Scrawny," is her own description.

Scrawny, perhaps, but she's good and getting better.

Wood collected 12 points, seven rebounds and six blocked shots Saturday as the fourth-ranked Eagles dunked Iowa Lakes, 69-46, at Johnson Hall to remain undefeated in ICCAC conference games.

Wood, who prepped at Cedar Falls, leads Kirkwood in three major categories at 11.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game.

Wood has long arms and long legs, and she puts them to good use on the basketball floor.

"I actually gained 20 pounds from high school and I'm still trying to gain weight," she said. "I weighed 144 coming out of high school and I weigh 162 now.

"I was pretty scrawny," she said, smiling, "and I'm still pretty scrawny."

Wood has posted several double-doubles this season in points and rebounds for Kirkwood, which is 21-4 overall and 8-0 in the conference. She leads a balanced attack and has improved quit a bit since last year, when she was a tentative freshman who deferred to older players on the club quite a bit.

It's been a hard trait to crack.

"Sometimes she's too unselfish," said Kirkwood Coach Kim Muhl. "She'll pass it out when I think she's got a great look."

But Muhl has seen significant improvement from his starting center.

"It's just confidence. And playing," he said. "She's a big kid that can run and she'll finish. And she's finishing better.

"She's a great kid. We're just trying to get her to guard better. And we're trying to get her balance better. She tends to fall off the face of the earth sometimes. We're trying to get her stronger."

Muhl criticizes Wood at times during games when she's not aggressive enough or makes a mistake - just like he does all the players - but Wood simply scrunches her face, nods in agreement and gets back to work.

"Honestly, having Coach Muhl as my coach is one of the best things," she said. "Choosing Kirkwood was one of the best choices that I made, because he does demand so much out of us, and that makes all of us better players."

Wood is studying biology and nursing at Kirkwood and hopes to play basketball at a four-year school next season.

Iowa Lakes jumped to a quick 7-2 lead Saturday, but the Eagles went on a 23-3 run and took control of the game at 25-10. The Lakers got within 10 points in the second half at 43-33, but the Eagles scored seven straight for a 50-33 advantage and coasted home.

Casey Miles led Kirkwood with 14 points. Cyerra Hutchins contributed nine points, five rebounds, three steals and three assists. Addie Oberman scored eight points off the bench.

"We were all right," said Muhl. "We guarded decent. Nothing great. It's that January/February lull a little bit, I think, trying to get over that hump a little better. We were OK."

"I think there's always room for improvement and that's always the motto," offered Wood. "We want to make the nationals, so it's one game at a time, just getting better every day."

Iowa Lakes (13-11, 2-6) forfeited a home game to Kirkwood Jan. 11 when it was battling internal problems, but the Lakers have been competing in the league since then. Asiya Smith led Iowa Lakes with 11 points.

IOWA LAKES (46): L.Smith 1 8-10 10, A.Smith 4 0-0 11, Goldtooth 3 1-2 9, Petrich 4 1-2 9, Dunivant 0 0-0 0, Lincoln 0 0-0 0, Olney 0 0-0 0, Stennis 2 1-2 5, Hoeppner 0 2-2 2, Blair 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 13-18 46.

KIRKWOOD (69): Harris 0 3-4 3, Miles 4 4-5 14, Sudduth 3 0-1 6, Hutchins 4 1-3 9, Wood 6 0-0 12, Lemons 1 0-0 2, Downs 2 0-0 4, Wheatly 1 0-0 3, Oberman 3 0-0 8, Voss 1 0-0 3, Dampier 1 2-3 4, Jennings 0 1-4 1. Totals 26 11-20 69.

Halftime - Kirkwood 35, Iowa Lakes 19. 3-point goals - Iowa Lakes 5 (A.Smith 3, Goldtooth 2), Kirkwood 6 (Miles 2, Oberman 2, Wheatly 1, Voss 1).