Associated Press

Utah Utes (8-5, 0-2 Big 12) at Iowa State Cyclones (12-1, 3-0 Big 12)

Ames, Iowa; Tuesday, 8 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 3 Iowa State is looking to extend its nine-game win streak with a victory over Utah.

The Cyclones have gone 8-0 at home. Iowa State ranks fifth in the Big 12 in team defense, allowing 65.0 points while holding opponents to 40.9% shooting.

The Utes have gone 0-2 against Big 12 opponents. Utah has a 3-5 record against opponents above .500.

Iowa State scores 86.6 points, 16.7 more per game than the 69.9 Utah allows. Utah scores 17.7 more points per game (82.7) than Iowa State gives up (65.0).

The matchup Tuesday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Joshua Jefferson is averaging 11.2 points, eight rebounds and 1.9 steals for the Cyclones.

Gabe Madsen is shooting 36.9% from beyond the arc with 3.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Utes, while averaging 16.5 points.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cyclones: 9-1, averaging 87.4 points, 33.6 rebounds, 17.2 assists, 9.9 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 50.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.3 points per game.

Utes: 5-5, averaging 78.1 points, 35.5 rebounds, 19.9 assists, 6.6 steals and 3.4 blocks per game while shooting 46.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.2 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

AMES − The hope in Ames was that the Iowa State women’s basketball team, which had suffered through a tough stretch at the end of the calendar year, had figured things out during its win over Kansas on Wednesday.

But any momentum the Cyclones picked up from their first Big 12 Conference victory of the season quickly dissipated Sunday when Iowa State suffered another Big 12 loss, falling to Utah 75-67 at Hilton Coliseum Sunday.

Iowa State, one of the favorites to win the league at the start of the season, has lost three of its last four games and fell to 10-6 overall and 1-2 in Big 12 play.

“I thought our kids competed but at the end of the day, sometimes basketball’s really simple and it’s a make-shot, miss-shot game and (Utah) made some tough ones,” said Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly. “We couldn’t make anything.”

Audi Crooks scored 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Cyclones. Emily Ryan added 18 points, five rebounds and six assists for Iowa State. Addy Brown chipped in with 10 points and eight assists.

Those three players helped Iowa State battle back from being down for most of the day. But the Cyclones couldn’t quite finish the job. The Cyclones shot just 25% (5-for-20) from 3-point range and 42% from the field overall.

Eight other players took the court for Iowa State. They combined for just 10 points.

“We can’t expect to win like that, not in this league when there are other teams who have five people that are consistently contributing night in and night out,” Crooks said.

Still, Iowa State was able to stay within striking distance during a game that featured four ties and nine lead changes. Iowa State dug an early hole as the Utes connected on their first seven shots from the field and their first five 3-point attempts.

An 8-0 run gave Utah a 21-10 lead. But Iowa State was able to cut into the deficit. Back-to-back layups by Crooks and Arianna Jackson pulled the Cyclones to within 23-21 in the second quarter. Iowa State briefly took the lead in the third quarter with baskets from Alisa Williams and Brown that put the Cyclones ahead 44-41.

But Utah took control with an 8-0 that put the Utes up 49-44.

“They play the game the right way − skilled, very seasoned, very tough-minded, very well-coached,” Fennelly said.

Utah shot 47% from the field and did most of its damage from 3-point range (13-of-26). After Iowa State tied the score at 58-58 on a pair of free throws from Brown, the Utes hit back-to-back 3-pointers.

The Cyclones cut the lead to two on a layup by Crooks with 47 seconds remaining. Utah’s Ines Vieira responded by connecting on a 3-point shot.

The Cyclones now get ready for a challenging road trip. Iowa State plays at Arizona State on Wednesday and Arizona on Sunday.

Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468

Caitlin Clark narrowed down her initial college choices early on but she ultimately chose Iowa over Notre Dame in the end.

Of course, you know the rest of the story. But it would’ve been fascinating to see Clark play for the Fighting Irish and she was close to heading to South Bend.

However, a feeling in her gut told her to play for the Hawkeyes, just a bit closer to home.

“I basically narrowed it down pretty early on,” Clark said on New Heights. “When I was going through my college recruitment,  I wanted to be like in the Midwest, just kind of a homebody, family person. Just wanted to stay fairly close to home. So that narrowed a lot of stuff down. And I visited, like Oregon and Texas and a few other places, and I liked them, but it was just like, I knew it was too far. 

“And then I visited Notre Dame a bunch of times, and I was like, I love Notre Dame, and I like, as a kid, like, you want to go to Notre Dame … It’s like the coolest thing, it’s Notre Dame, it has that tradition. They’ve had so many great players go through there in every single sport. But like, I just knew, like, something I could feel it in my gut, I was, like, I’m not supposed to go there, so I picked Iowa.” 

Legendary women’s basketball coach Muffett McGraw actually retired the year before Clark started college basketball, but there were recruiting interactions. Niele Ivey took over beginning in the 2020-21 season.

“Iowa was really good at women’s basketball before I went there too. Like, made a few sweet sixteens, made the Elite Eight,” Clark said. “Our coach had been there for quite a while, but they hadn’t been to the Final Four since like, 1992 so I wanted to go somewhere that was good, but like, maybe had it been like a blue blood per se, in like, quite a few years, and kind of help them get back to that. 

“And then it was obviously my home state too, and two hours from where I grew up, so perfect distance where, like, your parents can’t show up, but also, like, you can go home … It just kind of all worked out perfect. And obviously I made an okay decision, and it worked out pretty well.”