Iowa State Cyclones guard Emily Ryan (11) takes a shot between BYU Cougars guard Amari Whiting (1) and guard Kaylee Smiler (11) during the fourth quarter of a NCAA women’s basketball at Hilton Coliseum on Feb. 24, 2024, in Ames, Iowa.© Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK
AMES — It’s often a necessary, if risky choice. Opposing teams find containing Iowa State freshman Audi Crooks so difficult, that they decide to deploy a double team.
It’s a sound strategy, but not when the Cyclones’ backcourt plays like it did Saturday night against BYU.
ISU’s three starting guards — Emily Ryan, Hannah Belanger and Arianna Jackson — combined for a season-high 49 points and drained 9 of their 19 3-point attempts to bury the Cougars, 74-49, before a crowd of 10,896 at Hilton Coliseum.
“They made it a little bit more difficult for me, so props to them for that, but when you have shooters like I have, sorry,” said Crooks, whose team improved to 16-10 overall and 10-6 in Big 12 play.
The 6-3 freshman from Algona still compiled an impressive stat line of 18 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Crooks also soared to the top of the Cyclones’ freshman scoring chart with her 476th point of the season.
“If the greatest thing that Audi Crooks will do in her career at Iowa State is hold the scoring record, that’s on her and me,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. “This should be the start of it and I don’t have any doubt that will be the case.”
Ryan scored a season-high 22 points to lead the Cyclones, who completed a regular-season sweep of BYU (15-14, 4-11). Belanger chipped in 17 points and Jackson scored eight. Thirty of their 49 points came in the second half after the Cougars deployed the double-team gambit on Crooks and the guard trio sank 11 of its 17 field goal attempts after the break.
“When you have multiple people hitting shots, that makes us really dangerous,” said Belanger, who reached double figures in scoring in the second consecutive game. “We’re a three-level scoring team. We can hit the 3, we can go inside, and obviously the mid-range (shots) tonight were falling. So I think being dangerous at all three lives, no matter who’s scoring, is gonna be huge for us.”
Crooks, conversely, scored 12 of her 18 points in the first half, so BYU’s effort to limit her production obviously worked, but the side effects proved to be debilitating.
“They hit everything, so hat’s off to them,” Cougars head coach xx xxx said. “Bill does a great job with them and they are a very balanced team (that) played really well tonight.”
Fennelly said thriving from both inside and outside the line is his team’s goal every night, but Saturday’s well-rounded performance hinged on near-perfect execution and the Cyclones responded.
“When our guards are doing the things they’re capable of doing, that is a hard thing (to defend),” said Fennelly, whose team remains in a tie for fifth place in the conference standings. “So if you want to go double team, one of those kids is gonna be open. You hope they make them, but it’s added a dimension, slowly, to hopefully (us being) more efficient on offense.”
Crooks, of course, is happy to share. Breaking the school’s freshman scoring record is nice. Winning? That feeling trumps all else.
“When the teams double and they triple, I know that it’s an opportunity for them to get theirs,” Crooks said.
