AMES — The No. 15 Cyclones head to Fort Myers, Florida, to play two games in the Elevance Health Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off. They’ll take on No. 4 South Carolina on Thanksgiving Day and Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
Iowa State most recently beat Drake 80-78 off a last-second shot from sophomore center Audi Crooks, who had 33 points in the game. The win improved Iowa State’s record to 5-1.
As for the reigning national champions, South Carolina lost for the first time in over 40 games by 15 points against then-No. 5 UCLA. The Gamecocks dropped from No. 1 to 4, and they fell to a 5-1 record.
South Carolina is one of the top teams in the country and has been for multiple years in a row. The Cyclones were not originally supposed to play the Gamecocks, but they got added to the event late.
“We were in this tournament for Middle Tennessee and Purdue,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said. “They didn’t have a fourth team. Well, that fourth team turned out to be South Carolina.”
Although South Carolina is a tough test and something Iowa State has not dealt with this season, Fennelly is taking it as an opportunity to show the country what his team is capable of and get them exposure.
“The biggest thing is, it’s a two-hour infomercial for our school,” Fennelly said. “They’ll talk about Iowa State, they’ll talk about our players, they’ll talk about, you know, what’s going on with football. There will be a lot of positive discussion about our university and department.”
South Carolina is led by senior guard Te-Hina Paopao and junior forward Chloe Kitts. Paopao averages just over 14 points per game, while Kitts is just below 12. Kitts also collects just over nine rebounds a game, nearly a double-double a game.
The Cyclones will rely on their experienced players to battle it out with one of the top teams in the country. Fifth-year senior guard Emily Ryan has been the floor general, averaging nine assists per game, and Crooks is averaging nearly 22 points per game. Both of them seem excited about the matchup.
“It’s something that you can either shy away from or be excited about,” Ryan said. “This group is going to be excited about it, and we’ll go down there, play as hard as we can, and the outcome will take care of itself.”
“I think it’s going to show us a lot of things, and we’re going to learn a lot from that game regardless,” Crooks said. “I am really excited about the opportunity to be able to showcase what Iowa State’s all about.”
Despite the game against South Carolina being the game circled on many Cyclone fans’ schedules, they also play against Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
The Blue Raiders have also put up a 5-1 record through six games, with their lone loss being a 14-point loss to Tennessee. They take on Purdue in their first game in Fort Myers, which will be a good way for the Cyclones to evaluate their game.
All five of the Blue Raiders starters have worked on their conditioning this season, as all five play over 30 minutes a game. For comparison, the highest for Iowa State is 28 minutes for Ryan, and nobody who has appeared in all six games plays less than 10 minutes a game.
For the Middle Tennessee starters, the scoring is fairly distributed. Junior guard Ta’Mia Scott averages 16.5 points per game while shooting nearly 43% from beyond the arc. Crooks will also have her hands full with 6-foot 7-inch center Anastasiia Boldyreva, who averages nearly 16 points per game herself.
Iowa State heads to Fort Myers, Florida, with its first game taking place at 12:30 p.m. Thursday against No. 4 South Carolina and its next game against Middle Tennessee at the same time Saturday.
The game against South Carolina will be nationally televised on FOX, while the Middle Tennessee game will be streamed live on the Women’s Sports Network.
