Iowa State Cyclones center Audi Crooks (55) looks for a drive as Oklahoma Sooners center Beatrice Culliton (0) defends during the third quarter of a NCAA women’s basketball at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday, Feb. 10 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK
AMES — Publicly, it’s uncertain if Kansas State All-American Ayoka Lee is ready to return to the floor after suffering an ankle injury three and a half weeks ago.
Privately?
“She’ll play,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly predicted Tuesday in advance of his Cyclones’ matchup with the No. 10 Wildcats at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum.
Time will tell, but with or without Lee, Kansas State has proven to be an extremely formidable foe. The Wildcats (21-3, 10-2 Big 12) sit one game behind conference leader Oklahoma in the standings — and will pose a stern challenge for ISU (13-9, 7-5) regardless of her current health status.
“They’re not a team that’s gonna go full court and turn you over,” said Fennelly, whose young team is in the middle of a three-game stretch against top-25 adversaries. “It’s just (that) they make it really hard to run your offense and the interchangeable parts make it really hard.”
Oklahoma made it difficult for the Cyclones’ star freshman center Audi Crooks to get good looks at the basket. Crooks still scored 14 points against the Sooners in that 86-72 home loss on Saturday, and she, like Fennelly, expects Lee to play on Wednesday.
“I don’t know if prove would be the word, but if I hope to prove anything it’s just that I’m a competitor,” said Crooks, who ranks fifth in the Big 12 in scoring at 17.7 points per game. “It would just be nice to play a more established, more well-known level of competition (in the post), so I look forward to that matchup.”
One thing ISU could do to help free up Crooks is shoot better from the 3-point line. The Cyclones drained just 8-for-31 shots from behind the arc against the Sooners, but still rank third in the league in 3-point shooting accuracy at 36.1 percent. The Wildcats, meanwhile, lead the Big 12 in both opponent’s field goal percentage (34.4 percent) and opponent’s 3-point percentage (24.7), which could make getting back on track exceedingly difficult.
“We’ve had games where teams tried to (double team Crooks) and we’ve made two or three 3s in a row, and now they have to stretch the defense, and now we throw it back inside,” Fennelly said. “So you have to do both and it’s making shots, it’s passing at the right time, it’s posting to the right place — it all kind of goes together. And certainly when you’re playing the kind of teams that we’re playing, especially (last) Saturday and this week, you better do it right or you’re gonna have a really hard time getting any look at the basket, let alone a good one.”
Fennelly’s team — despite losing five of its past six games — is still tied for fifth in the conference standings. And even though the Cyclones’ NCAA Tournament hopes have dimmed, they haven’t remotely been snuffed out. That’s a testament to ISU’s team-wide bond — from five key freshmen to three seniors, which hasn’t wavered even as the win-loss record has waned.
“You have these top-ranked teams and you’re like, ‘Let’s go, bring them on,’” freshman guard Kelsey Joens said. “We’re ready for them. We just can’t wait to finally get back out there against some really good teams and prove ourselves.”
