The following is a press release from Iowa State Athletics Communications:
AMES, Iowa – Iowa State women’s basketball senior point guard Emily Ryan has been named to the Nancy Lieberman Award watchlist, announced by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Monday. It is the third time in her career that she has been featured on the award’s watchlist after receiving votes the last two seasons.
Ryan will return for her fifth and final season of eligibility as one of the most prolific point guards in collegiate women’s basketball. After sitting out the first nine games of the 2023-24 season due to injury, she quickly impacted a young Iowa State squad upon her return and helped the Cyclones match the best start to Big 12 play in program history with a 6-0 conference record. Beginning in late January, Ryan connected on 34-consecutive free throw attempts and matched the 65th-longest streak in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history.
A 2024 Big 12 All-Tournament team selection, Ryan broke the conference tournament record for career assists (64) and set an Iowa State women’s basketball record for career assists following her 10th dime in the quarterfinal victory over Baylor. She has now pushed the all-time mark to 782 assists. She enters the 2024-25 season as one of three active NCAA Division I women’s basketball players to record at least 150 assists in at least three seasons and she is the only active player to post the mark in four seasons. In the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, Ryan passed out 14 assists to go along with 18 points for her fourth double-double of the season. She also posted a career-high 36 points against No. 2-seed and fourth-ranked Stanford in the second round, finishing 6-of-9 from 3-point range and 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.
Iowa State plays an exhibition contest against Central on Wednesday, October 30 before opening the regular season on Monday, November 4 against Chicago State.