After earning the 14th victory on the campaign for the best start in school history, Iowa State returned to Ames to host Baylor in the first competition of the new year. In a pressing banter with a 72-70 final, the Bears reminded the Cyclones of the 2025 Big 12 Quarterfinal matchup.
“I hate losing more than I love winning, that’s something that we don’t take for granted, but don’t get it twisted, nobody can break us, we’re too close to each other, we love each other too much… they [Baylor] can’t define us,” junior guard Jada Williams said.
From the top of the first quarter to the final seconds of the game, the year-opening contest displayed how minor errors become the keys to defeat.
The game’s opening quarter closed out with a 21-17 Iowa State lead, which would become the Cyclone’s largest margin leading quarter.
Both Baylor and Iowa State opened the game with similar offensive distribution. The leading scorers in the quarter were junior center Audi Crooks and the Bears’ leading scorer, senior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, both tied with 12 points.
Littepage-Buggs would go on to lead her team in scoring with 21 points and three assists in 31 minutes.
Heading to the second quarter, Baylor’s pressing defense began to create a divide between the two teams. The Bears’ 6-0 scoring drive to conclude the half established the team’s first noticeable lead.
“I don’t think there’s been a game that Bill [Fennelly] and I have played against each other that hasn’t come down to the wire, especially in this building,” Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said.
With a commanding defense, Baylor forced Iowa State to some of its worst accuracy yet. At halftime, the Cyclones concluded with a 43.8% field goal while Baylor held a 41%, and yet the Bears still found themselves with a six-point lead.
A key difference between the two is the well-rounded offense of Baylor, where the team saw six of its nine players score, while Iowa State only saw four of its 11.
Within the Cyclones’ inability to score lies the team’s biggest anomaly yet: junior forward Addy Brown hit one field goal in 30 minutes of playing time. Aside from the absence of scoring from Brown, hitting shots beyond the arc also became a quivering quest.
This scoring drought, paired with a turnover spree, landed the Bears plenty of possession, resulting in scoring opportunities. Despite Baylor’s dominance, Iowa State began to mount a comeback in the second half.
The Cyclones’ 6-0 run late in the third quarter, which sprouted from a successful screen and a Baylor turnover, put the team within one point of the Bears to push toward a lead. Between the banter of the two, the third quarter concluded with a tie at 56.
As the stakes hit the highest point possible, a key driver in the offensive zone was junior guard Arianna Jackson, who stayed hungry and ready to collect three crucial offensive rebounds.
Iowa State’s keys to remaining undefeated came back to minimizing foul trouble while also maintaining possession. With six personal fouls in the third quarter, the Cyclones could not manage.
The off-balanced offense ultimately became Iowa State’s breaking point. While two of the Cyclones’ 11 found ground-breaking performances, the other nine fell out of the groove.
Even with Crooks’ 26 points and 10 rebounds double-double, paired with Williams’ 28 points, three rebounds and seven assists, the jaw-dropping performance wasn’t enough to tame Baylor.
Despite the stellar performance by Crooks, she still felt it wasn’t enough
“My field goal percentage, trash to my standards, that’s trash,” Crooks said. “I can’t let that happen again.”
The Cyclones landed two crucial advantage points to grasp the lead within the final moments. With three fouls in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, Iowa State held possession and a strict defense, but simply could not connect offensively.
With a 5-0 run, the Cyclones found themselves down by three with a Hail Mary three by Williams. The Cyclones found themselves tied with Baylor.
Despite the electric run, Baylor redshirt sophomore guard Taliah Scott hit one last field goal to deprive Iowa State of a victory and end the team’s historic run.
“When you lose, it really just puts everything out there,” Crooks said. “You have to look in that mirror and recognize what you have to do better. Because we have that early come March, yeah, just yeah.”
All quotes are provided by the Cyclones TV website.
