AMES – Iowa State will hit the road to spend a week in Arizona, facing two teams, starting with Arizona State on Wednesday. The Cyclones understand how crucial it is to win both road games in the same state, each just days apart following a devastating 75-67 loss against Utah at home.
After being handed their first loss at home against the Utes, the biggest struggle on the court for the Cyclones leading to the eight-point loss was the lack of success found from around the 3-point arc.
With sophomore center Audi Crooks being the Utes’ main focus, the availability around the perimeter was approachable.
Despite the multiple opportunities, Iowa State did not follow through, as it had a 25% success rate behind the arc, making five out of its attempted 20 shots throughout the game.
Due to the inactivity from behind the arc, the Cyclones relied heavily on shooting from in the paint, where Iowa State gained 34 points, mostly from Crooks, who had a team-high 29 points. During her success in the paint, Crooks met an Iowa State women’s basketball milestone, as she became the fastest player to reach 1,000 career points.
“We knew how special [Crooks] was as a player but I mean when you start talking about fastest here, against some pretty great players, and someone told me third fastest in the history of the league, that’s a long list of good players too,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said. “I knew she was good, we all knew she was gonna impact our team.”
Moving forward, in terms of the Cyclones’ shooting performance, the main focal point for the team to grow on is matching their efficacy with their effort. Fennelly took notice of how the Cyclones’ efficiency was not showing in the games, in contrast to practice.
“The biggest challenge for us right now is finding rhythm and rotation that allows us to where our execution and efficiency matchup to our effort,” Fennelly said. “Our kids are playing hard, I have zero concern about that.”
With a week slate of games stationed in Arizona, Iowa State will use the time on the road to reconnect with each other, with no outer distractions giving them a chance to reevaluate its performance.
“Going on the road gives us more time, we are all together and there are no outside distractions, not saying we have any, but it’s just different,” junior guard/forward Sydney Harris said. “I think it will be fun, also, new teams so we are excited to get that done, hopefully get some road wins.”
To improve their shooting and counter Arizona State’s strong defense, which averages 8.5 steals and 4.3 blocks per game, the team is focusing on specific strategies.
Leading the Sun Devils’ defense is junior forward Kennedy Basham, who has a total of 33 blocks this season, averaging 2.2 blocks per game. Junior guard Kennedy Fauntleroy and guard Jazion Jackson are also key contributors to Arizona State’s defense, as they each have 29 steals this season.
“Hopefully we play better and find those five-to-seven minutes that we miss in every game that we lose,” Fennelly said. “We are going to see two good teams and that’s the nature of this league, hopefully, we have a couple good days of practice to go play.”
Now held with a 1-2 Big 12 Conference record, the Cyclones are in a spot where every player is motivated in hoping to advance their record and perform better.
“Yeah, it’s motivating, if it isn’t that’s a problem,” sophomore forward Alisa Williams said. “I think that everybody in the locker room is motivated, doing extra work, just getting to where we know where we can be.”
Iowa State and Arizona State will square off at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The game will be live-streamed on ESPN+.
