IOWA CITY, Iowa – Sophomore center Audi Crooks scored a game-high 31 points in a double-double performance, but it was not enough against in-state rival No. 21 Iowa and the No. 18 Cyclones lost 75-69 Wednesday in Iowa City.
Iowa State fell to 8-3 on the season, while Iowa improved to 9-1. The Cyclones have struggled outside of Hilton Coliseum, going 1-3 outside of their home court.
It was expected coming into the game that Crooks would carry a lot of the workload offensively, but a few other factors made it even more evident. Crooks finished with 31 points and 10 rebounds; however, she struggled from the free-throw line, going 3-for-10.
“I thought our kids played really, really hard,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said. “Obviously, foul trouble and some limited minutes with some people hurt us, but it was a great game. Really proud of the way we competed in a tough environment.”
It was announced around an hour before tip-off that junior guard Kenzie Hare would be redshirting and getting surgery on a lingering hip injury. Hare was the Cyclones’ third-leading scorer up to that point with around eight points per game.
Additionally, after scoring nine points in the first quarter, sophomore forward Addy Brown picked up her third foul in the opening minutes of the second quarter and did not see the floor again until the fourth quarter.
“It was pretty challenging,” Brown said. “I probably sat half the game, if not more. Just trying to stay engaged, keep my teammates uplifted, but yeah, it was hard.”
From the first possession of the first quarter up until the end of the game, Iowa State was doing its best to feed Crooks on the low post. Crooks shot 14-of-22, taking the second-most shots in a game this season for her.
“Audi [Crooks] is, you know, a really good offensive player,” Fennelly said. “I thought we did a pretty good job getting her the ball at the right time. She finished quite a bit.”
Crooks started the night well, as she had the Cyclones’ first bucket on the first offensive possession, and it took a lot to slow her down. Her next bucket came off a fadeaway jump shot, something she has talked about that she has worked on over the offseason.
“It’s almost hard to double her because no matter where you bring the double, that beautiful kind of Dirk Nowitzki fade, she did it a couple of times tonight,” Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said. “She has an unbelievable ability to step and fade, and the double, when you bring it, it doesn’t affect it.”
The Hawkeyes tried a lot to slow her down, putting different defenders on her and trying to play front-side defense instead of playing the backside, but the Hawkeyes did not expect to shut her down completely going into the game.
“I didn’t go into this game thinking she wasn’t going to have 30,” Jensen said. “I mean, I was hoping it was going to be in the 20s, but I didn’t think we were possibly going to shut her totally down.”
Iowa tried centers Addison O’Grady and Ava Heiden to stop Crooks, but neither of those matchups was successful, as Crooks had 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the first half. Finally, the Hawkeyes found a matchup in the fourth quarter that slowed Crooks down. Forward Hannah Stuelke got the assignment and held Crooks to her game-low four points in the final quarter.
The Cyclones led most of the way, but some costly mistakes and untimely errors gave the Hawkeyes a big boost in the fourth quarter despite the dominant play from Crooks.
“When you play on the road, and 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 up and miss free throws. You can’t miss a layup. You got to get a stop, and we just didn’t do it.”
