AMES – The Cyclones won their season-opening exhibition match against Central College in dominant fashion, beating the Dutch 105-53 Wednesday night.
Following a 21-12 campaign a year ago, which ended with an 87-81 loss to Stanford in the second round of the NCAA tournament, the Cyclones will open the season ranked No. 8 in the country.
In the exhibition game against Central College, Iowa State dominated from the jump. It looked like a tune-up game for the Cyclones, who outplayed the Dutch in just about every aspect of the game.
The Cyclones jumped out to an early 8-0 lead in the first quarter, six of which came from sophomore forward Addy Brown. Freshman guard Reagan Wilson also scored her first career points with two threes in the quarter. Iowa State led 30-10 at the end of the first.
Freshman guard Aili Tanke took her turn to score the ball in the second quarter with two 3-pointers for herself. Sophomore center Audi Crooks had a very strong quarter as well, scoring six points and grabbing five boards as the Cyclones extended their lead to 55-20.
Iowa State kept its foot on the gas to start the second half, as redshirt sophomore forward Alisa Williams scored the Cyclones’ first eight points in the third, going on a personal 8-2 run.
Central College put up its best scoring quarter of the game with 19. Iowa State still built a lead that grew to 82-39.
Iowa State closed things out with TCU transfer junior Sydney Harris scoring eight points on 3-for-4 shooting.
Cyclone duo picks up where they left off
Crooks, who had one of the best freshman seasons in Iowa State history, had an efficient offensive night that was a rebound shy of a double-double. She had 20 points on 9-for-14 shooting, and went 2-for-3 from the free throw line.
“We can’t forget 55 is on the block,” head coach Bill Fennelly said.
In the 2023-24 season, Crooks was named to the All-Big 12 First Team and earned Big 12 Player of the Week honors twice during the year. Crooks had the highest field goal percentage of all Division I freshmen.
Brown, who was notorious a year ago for filling up the stat sheet, did just that in the exhibition. She put up 10 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, while also tallying three blocks.
The pair of Crooks and Brown led Iowa State in scoring and rebounds a year ago, with just over 19 points and almost eight rebounds for Crooks, and 13 points and just above eight rebounds for Brown.
The duo will lead the Cyclones into the season, alongside fifth-year senior guard Emily Ryan. Crooks was named to the Naismith Trophy Watch List to start this year.
3-point shooting shines
In the win on Wednesday night, Iowa State shot 15-for-38 from behind the arc, just below 40%.
“I think 38 [percent] is probably a little high, but it’s gotta be part of what we do,” Fennelly said. “Hopefully we’ll have one of those nights where everyone is hitting them.”
Fennelly spoke at media day about the 3-point shooters they got from the transfer portal, as well as the shooters they retained. During last year’s campaign they shot just above 22 threes a game right above 38%. Not only did Iowa State shoot with much more volume on Wednesday, but it shot at a slightly higher rate as well.
“It’s one of those things where during the game everyone is like, ‘we’re not making anything,’” Fennelly said. “We shot almost 40 percent from the three.”
Despite the small sample size, the Cyclones will look to shoot more threes this year. The two freshmen, Wilson and Tanke, both knocked down three 3-pointers, and sophomore guard Arianna Jackson hit three of her own.
“[Wilson] was like ‘I’m gonna cry,’ when she was subbing in and I was like, ‘No let’s save it for after the game,’” Brown said. “They [Wilson and Tanke] are doing a great job. They just take it everyday at a time.”
Rebounding gives Cyclones plenty of second chance points
Iowa State had 20 offensive rebounds against the Dutch, a high count regardless of opponent. Five of Williams’ 10 rebounds were on the offensive glass, and Crooks had three.
“I just went out there and worked hard,” Williams said. “I tried to rebound and work hard as much as I could.”
Williams redshirted last season after transferring from LSU, and finally got a chance to play in front of the Hilton Coliseum crowd Wednesday night.
A year ago, the Cyclones averaged 10 offensive rebounds a game, getting 2.5 from Crooks. On Wednesday, Iowa State doubled that number. The Cyclones had 24 second chance points generated from those offensive boards, accounting for nearly 25% of their scoring.
Iowa State officially tips off the regular season at 11 a.m. Monday against Chicago State at home. The season opener will be streamed live on ESPN+.
