After defeating No. 17 Baylor to move on in the Big 12 Tournament, Iowa State will face another heavyweight in No. 19 Oklahoma. This is the second-straight year the Cyclones and Sooners will face off in the semi-final round.
With a new tournament structure this season, Sunday is left open with no games being played. This presents an opportunity to practice, rest and prepare for the next game for the teams who reached the semi-finals.
“The uniqueness of this conference tournament format is there’s a day off,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said. “It’s kind of like if you get into the NCAA Tournament, you play a good team, you have one day, then you play probably a better team. And that’s exactly what we’re going through.”
Baylor gave Iowa State fits in the third quarter with a press that the Cyclones could not seem to break. Iowa State’s defense held strong and forced Baylor into poor shot selection to negate the struggles on offense.
The win over Baylor came about from a 12-1 run in the final three-and-a-half minutes highlighted by the free throws from guard Emily Ryan to make the win a reality. Ryan’s poise and leadership showed down the stretch when her team needed her most.
“We just kind of learned the intensity that we needed to play at and the energy we needed to bring,” Ryan said. “That’ll be a good benefit for us.”
It was a tall task to defeat Baylor and it will be again to take down Oklahoma. The Sooners won the Big 12 regular season title and beat the Cyclones in Hilton Coliseum 86-72.
“Since we didn’t get to play [Oklahoma] twice this year in the regular season, it’s fun that we match up with them in the tournament,” Ryan said. “We lost to them the first time around, so it just makes it that much more important that we prepare well.”
Oklahoma took down TCU 69-53 to advance to the semi-finals. The Sooners had a combination of shooting over 40% against TCU and held the Horned Frogs to under 28% from the field.
That combination of efficient offense and stifling defense is what the Cyclones saw earlier in the season when the Sooners came to Ames. Much of that is due to the offense Oklahoma generates.
“We didn’t play very well against them at our place, and that’s because of [Oklahoma],” Fennelly said. “They play with a lot of pace. When you look at it, they won the league, they won basically every award in the league.”
Both Iowa State and Oklahoma are in the top three in scoring offense and the bottom three in scoring defense, so a high-scoring game could be in store. Rebounds will be key in this one as the Cyclones and Sooners are the top two in combined team rebounds.
The Sooners are led by forward Skylar Vann, who averages 14.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Vann scored 12 against the Cyclones in the first meeting as she matched up with center Audi Crooks.
Much like the rest of the season, Iowa State will need a big day from Crooks. She led scoring for the Cyclones in the first game against the Sooners with 14, but eight of those points came from the free throw line.
The pace of the game will be quick, as two high-powered offenses will collide at the T-Mobile Center. Both teams will go all in with a spot in the Big 12 Championship at stake.
“Our post players are going to have to guard in space,” Fennelly said. “You can’t let them get the eight, 10, 12-0 runs.”
The Big 12 Tournament continues for Iowa State at 1:30 p.m. Monday as the Cyclones take on Oklahoma. ESPN2 will carry the broadcast for the game.
