Audi Crooks shoots a free throw during Iowa State’s 68-63 win over Princeton during the First Four of the NCAA Tournament at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Indiana. Photo Courtesy Iowa State Athletics Communications // Luke Lu
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Iowa State entered Wednesday’s First Four game against fellow 11-seed Princeton playing some of its best basketball of the season.
And despite enduring a disastrous second quarter against the Tigers at Purcell Pavilion, the Cyclones escaped with a 68-63 win — largely because they played one of their best quarters of the season right after halftime.
Crunch time hit Iowa State and it responded, sending head coach Bill Fennelly to his 800th career win. After the game, Fennelly said his team shined when it mattered most.
“I would agree with that, especially given the time, the situation, the opponent, yes,” Fennelly said when asked if that was this Iowa State team at its best while completing a comeback from 15 points down. “The desperation that your season is (over) is in the back of your mind… I thought when you put it all together, it was an amazing effort by this team.”
The Cyclones were outscored 27-7 in the second quarter and trailed 38-25 at halftime.
The situation seemed dire. Fennelly shared a simple halftime message with his players.
“He put the ball in our court and said it’s up to you,” said standout sophomore forward Addy Brown, who scored 22 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and dished out seven assists. “(He said) ‘I mean, if you guys are happy with this effort, go out there and do the same thing. If you’re not, you better change it or you’re going to go home.’ So it was up to us. We took it and ran with it.”
The Cyclones did so with ease, going on a 19-2 run after an early Princeton bucket, which secured a 46-42 lead.
Brown, who finished with 22 points and seven boards, had 11 of those 19 points that helped dig Iowa State out of its hole.
By the end of the third quarter, Iowa State had outscored Princeton 27-9. Then, Audi Crooks put the pedal down.
The 6-3 sophomore All-American scored her team’s next eight points and finished with 12 of Iowa State’s 16 points in the fourth quarter on her way to a 27-point game.
“I don’t know if anything really changed, but we just started to execute better,” Crooks said of the Cyclones’ second half. We took our time with our offensive possessions especially. We did better defensively, I thought, in the third quarter, limiting their second-chance opportunities.”
Fennelly took the blame for Princeton’s lead getting out of hand before halftime, and said that he had kept standout senior point guard Emily Ryan out of the game to save her minutes for the second half.
Ryan — who broke the Big 12 record for career assists — has been on a ‘pitch count’ all season, but her minutes have risen in recent games.
“I made a huge mistake,” Fennelly said. “I tried to save her minutes for the second half and it literally almost cost us the game because a lot of the time when we struggled offensively, she was out of the game.”
He also mentioned that he wished he had called a timeout when the deficit grew to double digits.
“I should have called timeout,” Fennelly said. “You get so caught up in saving them. I guarantee you my father, God rest his soul, was screaming ‘Call a timeout for God’s sake.’ I mean, we had two layups. So, it’s like I thought we were getting enough but, yeah, when it went from 7 to 13 like it did so fast and then you’re at the end of the half and it’s like, alright, we can get to halftime and that was a mistake, again, that was completely on me.”
While Iowa State played with as much fire as it could have likely handled, it survived. And that’s all this tournament is about.
Iowa State will face No. 6 Michigan in the Round of 64 on Friday, March 21 at 10:30 a.m. CT on ESPN2.
