Iowa State welcomed Arizona on Saturday, ready to show the Wildcats what they are missing without its former junior guard Jada Williams. With a 90-65 final, that point was proven. 

Early efficient execution

One key difference between the fates of the game came from each team’s scoring strategy. With a 28-24 shot attempts favoring the Cyclones found themselves up 53-29 in the first half. 

The stark scoring differential came from one of Iowa State’s scoring duos. Throughout the half, the Cyclones nearly outscored the Wildcats with two players alone.

Williams led the team in scoring at the half with 15 points; the overarching success came down to efficiency. Those 15 points came in only 14 minutes of playing time. 

Alongside the points, Williams tallied two rebounds and three assists. This performance by Williams stood for more than just a stellar performance when she was not expected to play until 45 minutes prior to the game.

“She [Williams] might be the toughest kid on our team, so I’m not surprised she tried it,” head coach Bill Fennelly said. “There’s only a finite number of games you get to play, and if you can play, you want to play.” 

Junior center Audi Crooks displayed a similar performance as she dropped 12 points in 12 minutes. Additionally, Crooks put up three rebounds and two assists in the first half.

Crooks began to fall into foul trouble, which shifted the scoring to other sources. The game concluded with five Cyclones scoring in the double digits.

“Everyone was scoring, I mean, when you have five people in double digits, you’re pretty hard to beat,” senior forward Sydney Harris said. 

Return of the three-point threat

Not only did the return of junior guard Arianna Jackson mark the team’s first win over Cincinnati following a five-game skid, but three-point shooting also found its way back into the Cyclones’ game. 

Jackson’s first-half performance displayed drilling three from beyond the arc. Although Jackson is known to light up the net from downtown, threes across the team became frequent.

Alongside Jackson, four other Cyclones found themselves drowning three-pointers.

In the second half, Jackson drilled one final three-pointer to close out with four to lead the team. Close behind was Harris, who tallied three. 

“Coach Fen [Fennelly] always kind of says we’re not going to win many games in this league, only having, you know, one or two people scoring all the points,” Harris said

Chippy plays lands charity stripe visits

Between Iowa State beginning its revenge arc in conference play and Arizona trying to escape its three-game losing streak, sparks began to fly, which landed plenty of visits to the charity stripe. Despite the Cyclones’ excellence at scoring, free-throw shooting has haunted the team. 

By the end of the game, Arizona had five players foul out and one player leave with an injury two minutes before the game concluded. This stretch of unfortunate events landed the Wildcats playing the last two minutes of the game with four players on the court. 

“I mean, two and a half minutes with four people out there just scrambling and flying around,” Arizona head coach Becky Burke said. “I actually think we outscored them for those two and a half minutes.” 

Despite the obvious free-throw advantage, Arizona’s accuracy percentage sneaked past Iowa State. The Wildcats concluded with a 68% free-throw percentage with 11-16 shots made.

The Cyclones picked up 20 charity stripe points on 31 attempts to land a 64.5% free-throw percentage. 

Leading the free point scoring was Arizona’s redshirt junior guard Tanyuel Welch, who drilled five shots at the line. Iowa State’s leading free-throw scorer was redshirt junior forward Alisa Williams, who drilled four of eight shots.

“Just be aggressive, nothing changes, just more minutes,” Williams said. “Wasn’t too great on my free throws, but usually I make free throws.”