Iowa State women's basketball overcomes double-digit deficit to beat West Virginia
AMES – During every timeout Wednesday night, Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly reminded his team of the many texts, emails and calls he’d gotten over the weekend. After securing his 600th win at Iowa State on Saturday, messages flooded Fennelly’s phone to congratulate him on the accomplishment and tell him what they thought of his latest team.
All of them seemed to have the same sort of talking points to them. Many of the well-wishers wanted to tell Fennelly how much fun this season's Cyclones team has been to watch, how tough they are and how much the group reminded them of one of his best teams, the 1999-2000 squad that won 27 games and reached the Sweet 16.
“I just repeated that during the timeouts about if that’s who we are, then it’s time to start doing it,” Fennelly said.
The Cyclones certainly looked like one of Fennelly’s top teams Wednesday. Iowa State rallied from a 19-point deficit to remain undefeated in Big 12 Conference play with a memorable 74-64 victory over West Virginia at Hilton Coliseum. The victory was the seventh-straight for the Cyclones who improved to 11-4 on the season and 4-0 in Big 12 play.
“This team has a lot of fight and I think we showed that tonight and we’ve showed it in previous games as well,” said Iowa State freshman Addy Brown. “But I just love this team.”
More: A look back at each of Iowa State basketball's wins over top-10 teams in last five seasons
There’s plenty to love about the Cyclones who bounced back from an ugly first half and rallied from the double-digit deficit in the second half. Audi Crooks scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the comeback. West Virginia and its physical defense gave Iowa State troubles for most of the first three quarters. It forced 23 turnovers and caused the Cyclones to miss their first 10 3-pointers of the evening.
Things hit their lowest point in the third quarter when West Virginia went on an 11-0 run and took a commanding 55-36 lead on a layup by Kylee Blacksten with 6:04 remaining in the frame. That’s when Iowa State mounted its comeback.
Iowa State freshman Kelsey Joens connected on the first of three straight 3-pointers by the Cyclones to get them going. They pulled to within eight when Arianna Jackson sank a pair of free throws to end the quarter on an 11-0 run. Hope, after a horrific first half, started to creep in.
“Now it’s like, 'All right, you’ve got a chance,'” Fennelly said. “They didn’t knock us out. We talk a lot about sometimes you’ve got to lay on the ropes and protect yourself, just stay on your feet. And we got to the end of the third quarter and luckily, we started to make some plays.”
Iowa State cut the lead to six on a jumper by Emily Ryan. The Cyclones took their first lead of the game when Crooks connected on a layup and got fouled. Her free throw extended Iowa State’s lead to 64-62. West Virginia tied the game shortly after but Iowa State reclaimed the lead for good on another layup by Crooks.
More: Iowa State women's basketball team preparing for huge week at Hilton Coliseum
Ryan, who finished with 13 points, hit four free throws in the final 33 seconds of the game to put things too far out of reach for West Virginia.
“You’re just thinking, ‘Put them in, do your job’ and I think that’s what got us the win tonight is everyone just kept doing their job and just staying together throughout the whole thing,” Ryan said.
Brown finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Here’s what we learned from the comeback.
Iowa State really struggled from 3-point range. And then….
Iowa State’s NCAA record of 908 straight games with a 3-pointer seemed like it might be in jeopardy early on. The Cyclones missed their first 10 shots from beyond the arc and couldn’t get going until midway through the third quarter. Joens ended the drought and kickstarted a huge stretch. Brown and Hannah Belanger followed with two more for three-straight 3-pointers.
Iowa State finished the game with five. The first one by Joens was a game-changer.
“I think once we hit our first three, that was big-time,” Brown said.
Emily Ryan was clutch down the stretch
Fennelly has tried to ease Ryan back into things after the star point guard missed the start of the season with an injury. Ryan, who has been on a minutes restriction, played a season-high 25 minutes and 31 seconds Wednesday. She was a perfect 5-for-5 at the free throw line with some huge makes at the end of the game.
Fennelly credited Ryan with helping keep the Cyclones on track when they fell behind.
“Emily Ryan just refused, refused, I mean literally refused to let this team not compete down the stretch,” Fennelly said. “You could sense it in the huddles.”
More: Talk of inexperience has fueled Iowa State women's basketball to strong start
Up next…an even tougher opponent
The week gets even tougher when a bigger opponent comes to Ames. The Cyclones will host No. 7 Baylor on Saturday. The timing might not be ideal for Iowa State. The Bears (14-1, 3-1 Big 12) are coming off their first loss of the season, an 87-66 seatback at Kansas on Wednesday night.
“I guarantee you the team we’re playing Saturday is in a really bad mood right now,” Fennelly said.
Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 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 tops West Virginia with big comeback
