STANFORD, Calif. – Not many people, at least outside of the Iowa State women’s basketball team’s locker room, expected the rebuilding Cyclones to do much this season. Iowa State and its roster full of freshmen surprised teams across the country with their run to the Big 12 Conference Tournament title game and at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
That surprise season came to an end Sunday night as 2-seed Stanford held off 7-seed Iowa State 87-81 in overtime in an NCAA Tournament second-round game at Maples Pavilion. Iowa State finished its season with a 21-12 mark and was a play or two away from delivering a monumental upset. The Cyclones gave Stanford all it could handle and then some.
“Nobody thought we were going to be anything, let’s be honest and here we are going into overtime with Stanford,” said Iowa State freshman Audi Crooks. “Are you kidding me?”
Iowa State point guard Emily Ryan poured in a career-high 36 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Cyclones, who led 33-31 at halftime and were tied with Stanford heading into the fourth quarter. The back-and-forth battle included 18 lead changes and 12 ties. The Cyclones even led late in the fourth quarter. But Iowa State couldn’t finish the job against a Stanford squad that got a game-high 41 points from Kiki Iriafen.
“They have a lot of talent on their team and she had one of those nights tonight,” Ryan said. “There wasn’t much we could do to stop her. Every time we tried to do something, she countered it with a strong move or something different.”
Despite the huge night from Iriafen and even with Crooks, Iowa State’s biggest scoring star battling foul trouble most of the night, Iowa State continually scared Stanford. The Cyclones shot 63.2% (12-of-19) from 3-point range and got big basket after big basket. One of the biggest came from Iowa State freshman Addy Brown whose layup with 1 minute and 11 seconds remaining in regulation tied the game 66-66.
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The Cyclones had two chances to take another lead. But a missed shot by Brown and a layup attempt by Crooks that was off the mark kept the game tied. A missed shot at the buzzer by Iriafen sent the game to overtime.
“I think we were excited to still be in the game and going into overtime,” Brown said. “We had them where we wanted them.”
Brown, who finished with 15 points, swished a 3-pointer with 31 seconds left to give Iowa State an 81-80 lead. Stanford took it right back on a 3-pointer by Brooke Demetre. Iowa State got the ball back with 18.4 seconds remaining but couldn’t capitalize, with Brown missing a layup. Iowa State was forced to foul. Demetre gave the Cardinal a 85-81 lead with a pair of made free throws.
“We just couldn’t finish it out in the last segment of overtime there,” Brown said. “We gave them everything we had.”
It wasn’t enough as Stanford hit its final six shots of the game from the field and closed out the game with a 7-0 run.
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Iowa State was without Crooks, the star freshman who scored 40 points in a first-round game, for most of the overtime period after fouling out. She finished the game shooting just 3-of-21 from the field and ended with 10 points. Losing her drastically changed Iowa State’s offensive approach.
“We run a lot of different stuff when Audi’s in the game,” Fennelly said.
While the end was a disappointment for the Cyclones, there was still plenty to be happy about in a season full of surprising moments.
“I haven’t had this much fun coaching in a long time,” Fennelly said.
Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State women’s basketball season ends with NCAA loss to Stanford
