Iowa State women’s basketball: Cyclones running out of time to tally marquee win

AMES – The Iowa State women’s basketball team is running out of opportunities to tally a much-needed marquee victory this season. The Cyclones suffered their second ranked loss of the week with an 82-69 defeat to No. 9 TCU at Hilton Coliseum on Sunday.

With the loss, Iowa State fell to 15-9 on the season including 6-5 in Big 12 Conference play. The Cyclones dropped to 0-6 against ranked opponents and have yet to pick up a Quad 1 victory to spruce up their NCAA Tournament resume. Which means time is ticking for Iowa State to get one.

“Obviously we don’t feel great about that,” Iowa State’s Audi Crooks said of the week that also included a loss at No. 11 Kansas State. “That’s not how we planned on the week going. However, that is the reality. That is the situation. We had opportunities in both games to honestly win the games.”

Iowa State couldn’t capitalize on either of them, and that has left the Cyclones’ postseason future hanging in the balance. The Cyclones entered Sunday’s game with TCU on the NCAA Tournament bubble in ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme’s latest projections.

Creme, who had the Cyclones among his last four teams in, told the Register earlier in the week that Iowa State could possibly get off the bubble if it could pick up a victory over Kansas State or TCU.

Iowa State has struggled against ranked opponents throughout the season, getting pummeled by South Carolina, UConn and West Virginia and losing a closer game at Iowa.

While Iowa State hasn’t suffered any truly ugly losses so far this season, the Cyclones are in desperate need of picking up a signature win. They nearly got it when they took Kansas State to overtime on Thursday. The Cyclones had a chance to win the game but a 3-pointer by point guard Emily Ryan was off the mark.

Iowa State then had its chances Sunday. The Cyclones held TCU star Sedona Prince scoreless before she fouled out. Iowa State trailed by one at halftime and cut TCU’s lead to four in the fourth quarter. But the Cyclones couldn’t get the lead. The loss felt similar to the game at K-State.

“We’re right there in the game, throughout almost the whole game,” said Iowa State’s Addy Brown. “Like, we’ve just got to clean up the little things, a few things, five to eight minutes worth of the game and the game is ours.”

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Iowa State’s Audi Crooks talks about her team’s loss to TCU

Iowa State’s Audi Crooks looks back on her team’s loss to TCU

The near-upsets may ultimately help the Cyclones, who are benefiting from what Creme believes is a weak bubble group this season. Losing to K-State and TCU may not prevent Iowa State from getting in. But it did stop the Cyclones from potentially solidifying a spot.

Now the Cyclones are running out of chances to improve their resume. Iowa State has just one more ranked opponent on its schedule, the regular-season finale with Kansas State at home on March 2. The Cyclones also travel to Baylor, which would be a nice victory. But Wednesday’s game at Cincinnati and Saturday’s contest with Colorado likely won’t do much to help Iowa State’s resume.

The Cyclones also have Kansas, Houston and UCF remaining. Those games won’t help Iowa State’s resume, but an ugly loss would certainly hurt it. Iowa State has done a good job of beating the teams it’s supposed to beat. The Cyclones will try to continue that trend.

While Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said he doesn’t pay attention to his team’s postseason picture or games down the line, he did acknowledge there are still possibilities for his team to make up ground.

“If you look at the big picture, we don’t have a bad loss … and we have whatever, seven more opportunities to play in a Big 12 game,” Fennelly said. “There’s still opportunities there for us to do some good things.”

Crooks scored 29 points, but needed 26 shots to do it

Iowa State’s sophomore star poured in 29 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out two assists in the loss. But Crooks was not efficient with her shots, connecting on just 12-of-26 from the field. Finishing near the basket was a big issue for the Cyclones, and it certainly plagued Crooks for most of Sunday.

“You can’t miss 14 shots around the basket,” Fennelly said.

Crooks and Addy Brown carried the scoring load for Iowa State

Crooks and Addy Brown combined to score 60 of Iowa State’s 69 points. Brown finished with 31 on 11-of-16 shooting from the field, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Then there was the 29-point performance from Crooks.

The problem for the Cyclones: Hardly anyone else contributed.

Kelsey Joens and Arianna Jackson both chipped in with three points. Emily Ryan added two. Alisa Williams had one. The eight other players who saw the court combined to shoot just 2-of-9 from the field. Crooks and Brown combined for 86.9% of Iowa State’s scoring and had all 33 of Iowa State’s second-half points.

“Obviously we’ve got to have some people step up and I think they’re more than capable,” Brown said. “We’re just waiting. We’re believing in them and we’re just going to have the utmost confidence in them because that’s what they need and I think they’re more than capable and they’re going to step up because that’s what the coaches are asking them to do.”

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