Mar 12, 2024; Kansas City, MO, USA; Texas Longhorns forward DeYona Gaston (5) drives to the basket during the first half against the Iowa State Cyclones at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas City – No matter where Iowa State turned on Tuesday in its 64-47 Big 12 championship loss to Texas, the Cyclones had no answers.
The Cyclones were outscored 30-10 during the first 15 minutes of the game, and couldn’t make up the ground to catch up to the Longhorns.
“First of all, I certainly want to congratulate Texas, (they’re a) phenomenal team,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “They looked like a Final Four team today. On behalf of our team, our school, I really want to the thank T-Mobile, I want to thank the Big 12, amazing event. Loved everything about it. Really appreciate that.”
To go along with the early deficit, Iowa State star Audi Crooks didn’t score her first basket in the game until the last five minutes of the first half.
She finished with 25 points and nine boards, and was the only Cyclone in double figures during the loss.
The team committed 20 turnovers in the game to Texas’ seven. It shot just 8-24 from the field in the first half, and entered the break trailing by 19 points.
It put itself behind the 8-ball and paid for it.
“We dug ourselves a hole and a lot of times this season we have been able to climb out of that but tonight was not one of those nights,” Crooks said. “We can’t continue to put ourselves in those bad situations. We need to prepare. I think our preparation could have been a little bit better this game. We could have been a little more focused. It all could have been amped up a little bit, defensively. We weren’t very sound in my opinion and those are things you can’t not have together when you are playing in this league.”
Madison Booker, the Big 12 player and freshman of the year, was a consistent spark plug for Texas.
She finished with 26 points on a 12-22 mark from the field, frequently hitting shots to counter big Iowa State makes on the other end.
In the end, Iowa State couldn’t overcome the hole that it dug itself.
“I don’t know,” Fennelly said. “I’m one of those people that I don’t know that losses ever help you, to be honest, but I think it’s — what helps is what our players having through. I think our strength of schedule is rated in the top-ten in the country. We play really good teams, we play in a great league, so I think the biggest thing is when you get to the postseason, we’ve seen a lot in this league that I don’t know that we’re going to see anything in the NCAA Tournament that we haven’t seen in the Big 12.”
Iowa State will await Selection Sunday to find out its destination for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 17 (7 p.m. ESPN).
“I think that’s part of it,” Fennelly said. “Hopefully when we get home and get back to work we can clean up a few things. But whatever we see, we will be ready to prepare for it.”
