Audi Crooks goes up for a shot during Iowa State’s 93-86 win over Maryland in Friday’s NCAA Tournament first round game at Maples Pavilion in Stanford. Photo Courtesy Iowa State Athletics Communications // Luke Lu
Stanford, Calif. – Iowa State trailed Maryland by 16 points during the halftime break of Friday’s NCAA Tournament game.
Maryland connected on 9 of its first 12 3-point attempts, and had Iowa State scrambling to find spots where the defense needed to be. It looked all the part of a game separated by 16 points.
Enter Iowa State, with a focus on post star Audi Crooks in the second half. Behind her 40-point performance, the Cyclones erased the deficit in seven minutes, and move on to the second round with a 93-86 win.
“At halftime coach (Fennelly) told us what we do is up to us,” Crooks said. “The way that this falls, if this is how we want to go out, that’s up to us. What happens on the floor is our responsibility. It’s our fault. They can’t play the game for us, and it was just a matter of pride just knowing that we weren’t playing to our best abilities, and then going out there showing what we can do and we did that.”
The Algona native nearly broke Iowa State’s single-game scoring record (42, set by Tonya Burns in 1984), and ended the night with 12 rebounds on a 18-20 mark from the field.
Crooks becomes the first player in NCAA Tournament history to score 40 or more points and finish with a 90% shooting mark from the field.
“She dropped 40 on 20 shots,” point guard Emily Ryan said. “That’s pretty eye-popping right there. It was a special night for her but, as well as our team, but couldn’t have happened to a better person and I’m glad I get to share the court with her.”
Ryan had her own superstar night – although it may be overshadowed given the circumstances. She finished with 18 points and 14 assists.
Time after time down the floor, Iowa State’s captain was dropping high, lofty passes that ended up in the arms of Crooks, who would cash in for a bucket to finish the possession.
“(I’m) just grateful,” Crooks said. “I can’t say thank you enough to the people that I’m surrounded by. When you’re surrounded by people that you love, that care about you that trust you as much as they do to get me the ball, that speaks volumes to how we play as a unit and yeah, just I bow down to the guards.”
Lob passing has been something Iowa State worked on frequently this year, and it showed on Friday.
“We worked really hard on that,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “Early in the year, we were not sure the best way to go about it. But I think what happens is, because of the positions she can get, Audi has amazing hands. So it’s like a wide receiver. It’s like my man, Austin Arnaud, the way he used to throw to Iowa State receivers, like ‘hey, I know my guy is going to catch it.’ And we have multiple people that can make the passes. Obviously Emily does most of it, but Addy Brown has been really good.
“We spend — and for us, it’s been a learning curve because we have not had a true low-post player in our program for 25 years,” Fennelly said. “And so it’s been something we’ve all had to learn, and Audi has been really patient with us (and) patient with her teammates.”
Facing the 16-point deficit, Iowa State came out swinging.
Hannah Belanger and Ryan each hit 3-pointers in two of the first three possessions of the half – they showed that they weren’t out of it, yet.
After Maryland’s Shyanne Sellers made a shot to put Iowa State down by 11, Kelsey Joens canned a 3-pointer to cut it to eight. Then the ball was rolling.
“I think more so than technical basketball, (the comeback) was more about shilling through the lows,” Ryan said. “We just stayed connected. There was a lot of belief throughout. And when it comes to March, you want to keep playing and be able to show up the next day and continue to be around
this team because it’s something special and you don’t want it to end.
That’s something you want to really remember when you’re playing, and you don’t want the season to end for your seniors because it’s their last go-around, too. So just trying to extend the season as long as possible so you can make more memories of March.”
Maryland’s Allie Kubek hit a jumper right out of the timeout.
She had given the Iowa State defense all it could handle throughout the game, going 5-5 in the first half from the 3-point line and finishing 7-8 from distance. That’s after making just 13 triples in total during the regular season.
But Iowa State took its punches.
Crooks got a layup on the other side and Kelsey Joens drew a foul that resulted in the third quarter media timeout.
The Cyclones got 12 points, three rebounds and nearly 22 solid minutes out of Joens in the victory. Her plus/minus was a team-high +14, along with Crooks (+14) and Ryan (+13) that stood out over the rest of the team in that category.
Joens hit both of her free throw’s and let the Iowa State defense go to work.
The Cyclones forced stops on five straight possessions to claw back into the game.
Then Joens capped the comeback with a game-tying 3-pointer that brought every Iowa State fan in the crowd to its feet.
The Cyclones took the momentum and ran, celebrating at the end of the night with a trip to the second round secured.
“As far as the shots go, I think we did have better looks in the second half because they were kind of collapsing a little bit more, and I think the other thing that happens is, for us, you can get a transition three once in a while,” Fennelly said. “We finally stopped them maybe once or twice and got a transition (three). It’s tough to get a transition basket or good look when you’re taking the ball out of the net all the time. So when we finally got some stops, ran it up the court and hit a skip pass or two, Kelsey, Hannah hit some big ones, Emily hit some. I think it was more coming off of our defense being better.”
The 20-point comeback is the second largest in NCAA Tournament history, only to Texas A&M’s 21-point comeback against Penn State in 2017.
Iowa State will face No. 2 Stanford on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16. Time and TV selections will be made available at a later time.
“This is a big night, not for me, but for Iowa State,” Crooks said.
