IOWA CITY, Iowa – Last-minute mistakes and a reduced offensive performance in the fourth quarter led to No. 18 Iowa State’s 75-69 loss against No. 21 Iowa on Wednesday.

Despite having a strong performance throughout the game, the Cyclones lacked the offensive motivation in the final minutes, sealing their third loss in a row against the Hawkeyes.

First-quarter momentum looks promising

With a crowd in Carver-Hawkeye Arena close to 15,000, the Cyclones were able to withstand the noise early on and win the jump ball, leading to a jump shot by center Audi Crooks to put their name on the board.

Crooks early on became a struggle point for Iowa, as she developed nine points in the first quarter, making four of her five attempted field goal shots. Crooks would go on to complete her night with a team-high of 31 points and 10 rebounds.

“[Crooks] is a great young kid, let me tell you, her family we recruited the heck out of her,” Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said. “A kid who works like that, she is so big and strong she’s got a beautiful touch and she does a lot of work early.”

Following Crooks’ momentum, forward Addy Brown became a reliable shooter as she made back-to-back threes, overall going 3-for-3 from the arc. She had nine points in the first minutes, and her defensive skill did not falter as she battled for three defensive rebounds.

Brown quickly established herself as an aggressive player for Iowa State. However, she picked up two personal fouls in the first quarter and received a third foul just three minutes into the second. As a result, she remained on the bench until she was substituted back in with 20 seconds left in the third quarter.

“It’s hard to have Addy Brown out of the game in foul trouble, offensively that’s a huge loss, especially with Kenzie [Hare’s] situation,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said. “We kinda struggled to eat up the minutes.” 

Including forward Alisa Williams’ two points from the free-throw line, Iowa State started the game with a 20-17 lead after the first quarter.

Free-throw line woes

Iowa State’s missed opportunities from the free-throw line led to a scoring drought as they finished the night with an overall total of six points behind the line.

Crooks had 10 attempted free throws and only made three, which contributed to a lack of points that would have been beneficial to increase their lead. Despite Williams’ successful two free throws, the team’s success rate behind the line was at 37.5% for the game.

“Obviously [Crooks] is a really good offensive player, I thought we did a really good job of getting her the ball at the right time,” Fennelly said. “She finished quite a bit, and struggled at the free-throw line, which was a big part of the game tonight.” 

In the fourth quarter, the team succeeded in making 25% of their shots behind the charity stripe, with Crooks going 0-for-2 and guard Emily Ryan making one of her attempted two shots.

“When the other team is playing at a level that they were playing, you got to find a way to stop it,” Fennelly said. “You can’t go in and miss two free throws, you can’t miss a layup, you got to get a stop and we just didn’t do it, and that’s a credit to them and something we need to work through.”

Fourth-quarter mistakes lead to a loss

Maintaining a steady offense through the second and third quarters, the lead was still intact with the three-point lead in the first quarter from the Cyclones. However, Iowa State saw an increase in mistakes and was outscored by nine in the fourth quarter. 

Iowa State’s limited points came from lead contributors Crooks and Brown, with both securing four points. However, Ryan stepped up in the last minutes of play, securing five points after only making four shots in the final 10 minutes of action.

Quickly going into fight-or-flight mode, the Hawkeyes strengthened their defense, contributing five steals to their overall total of 12 in the final minutes of play, added two additional turnovers and grabbed six defensive rebounds, all in the final quarter.

“They are very, very physical, especially on the perimeter,” Fennelly said. “They have length at every spot and they just really get up into you, they make it really hard to run your offense.”

“I thought Hannah [Stuelke] did a great job towards the end on [Crooks], face guard, fronting her, she is a great player,” Iowa guard Sydney Affolter said. “Defense is super important this year, we put a lot of emphasis on that, so I am glad we can execute that at the end.”

Despite facing a more aggressive defensive front, the Cyclones still developed opportunities around the court to shoot but were quickly recognized as agitated, overall affecting their performance as they made six of their 11 attempted field goals and one out of their four attempted free throws.

“We missed some shots, there were two times that we could have gone to the basket and didn’t make them,” Fennelly said. “We had players who were not able to get back in transition and they knocked in a couple of threes on us, which was big.”