Mar 11, 2024; Kansas City, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones center Audi Crooks (55) shoots the ball over Oklahoma Sooners forward Skylar Vann (24) during the second half at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-USA TODAY Sports
Iowa State returned just 17.7 points from last season’s Big 12 Tournament championship team that averaged 75.4 points per game.
Freshman Audi Crooks eclipsed the former number this season by herself.
The first-team All-Big 12 performer from Algona Garrigan scored 25 points to push her season scoring average to 18.4 as the fourth-seeded Cyclones dismantled top-seeded Oklahoma, 85-68, in Monday’s conference tournament semifinal at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
“We’re here and a lot of people said that we wouldn’t be,” Crooks said in the postgame news conference. “I just think that speaks volumes.”
Fellow freshman Addy Brown added 16 points, seven assists and six rebounds for ISU (20-10), which features four new starters as it seeks to repeat as the Big 12 Tournament champion. The Cyclones other three freshmen — Kelsey Joens, Jalynn Bristow and Arianna Jackson — drained a combined four 3-pointers and transfer center Isnelle Natabou added six points to help ISU outscore the Sooners 20-to-4 in bench points.
“Our bench continues to impact the game and I thought all of them did that today,” said ISU head coach Bill Fennelly, whose team notched its sixth top-25 win of the season. “All four of them. They couldn’t have been better.”
The only returning starter from last season’s run — point guard Emily Ryan — contributed 12 points, 10 assists and six rebounds as the Cyclones shot 58 percent from the field and avenged a 86-72 home loss to Oklahoma earlier this season.
ISU went a sizzling 12-for-23 from 3-point range and will face second-seeded Texas (29-4) in Tuesday’s 8 p.m. championship game (ESPN2).
“The big thing is just to stay in the moment and try not to do anything that we haven’t done before,” Ryan said. “Just keep doing what we’re doing.”
The Cyclones led by as many as 28 points and racked up their sixth straight win. Crooks went 12 of 19 from the field after being limited to just eight shot attempts in the regular season loss to the Sooners.
“We just brought a high level of focus and intensity,” said Crooks, who added nine rebounds and three assists. “It’s a lot easier to beat someone if you’ve seen them. And at home, it was our first time playing them and we didn’t know what to expect, but we kind of saw them and experienced that, so we knew how to combat that and we came out on top today.”
The Sooners lost for just the third time in their last 13 games, and trailed by just seven, at 31-24, with 2:19 remaining in the first half. Crooks then struck with back-to-back layups and Brown drilled a 3-pointer in the closing seconds to give ISU a 38-24 halftime lead.
“I think anytime you can hit a big bucket at the end of a quarter, or half, it’s huge for momentum because you’re going to be sitting on that last play for a while,” Ryan said. “So it was a huge (shot) for her and (it created) a lot of excitement.”
Expect more excitement to come for the no longer new-look Cyclones as they chase their second straight conference tournament crown while continuing to enhance their NCAA Tournament seeding possibilities.
“Whatever happens (Tuesday night), I think the young people on our team are going to be rewarded (by) playing in a game they all dreamed about playing in when (they came) to college,” Fennelly said.
