Iowa State women’s basketball come up short on road at Kansas State

Editor’s note: This story was written in Iowa.

Iowa State possessed the grit, skill and poise to have a chance to win Thursday at No. 11 Kansas State.

But the Wildcats delivered the dominant finishing touch.

The Cyclones (15-8, 6-4) rallied late in regulation to force overtime, but eventually ran out of steam in an 87-79 Big 12 women’s basketball loss before a highly-charged crowd of 5,497 at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan.

“We played really, really hard,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said on the Cyclone Radio Network after the game. “Obviously made way too many mistakes, both offense and defense, but that’s a really good team. Tough environment.

“The physicality of the game, we just didn’t respond to, but didn’t give up (and) kept playing.”

The Cyclones closed regulation with a 7-0 run to tie the game — but also could have ended it before the extra time. ISU’s standout senior point guard Emily Ryan got a clean look at a deep 3-point shot as the buzzer sounded, but her shot clanged off the back iron.

“We had some good looks at it, but too many turnovers (23) — got to give them credit, number one, and number two, some bad decisions by us, and we’ve got to coach that better,” Fennelly said.

Center Audi Crooks led the Cyclones with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Guard/forward Addy Brown added 20 points, eight assists and four rebounds. They shot a combined 18-for-27 from the field while the rest of ISU’s team went 10 of 38.

“We couldn’t get anyone to make a shot (consistently) except for Addy and Audi,” Fennelly said.

Kansas State (20-2, 8-1) improved to 14-0 at home this season and drained all six of its field goal attempts in the extra five minutes — including a shot clock-beating two-handed push shot by guard Taryn Sides. She went 4-for-4 from 3-point range to finish with 17 points. Serena Sundell led the Wildcats with 23 points and eight assists.

“She does is at both ends of the floor,” Fennelly said. “She dictates the pace of the game at both ends of the floor. Makes winning plays. Does everything they ask her to do.”

Backup guard Kelsey Joens added nine points for the Cyclones on 3-for-5 3-point shooting. Ryan finished with six points, nine assists and five rebounds as she eclipsed 1,500 points in her sterling career.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way tonight,” Fennelly said.

ISU will try to rebound at 3 p.m. Sunday (FS1) when ninth-ranked TCU (20-2, 8-1) comes to Hilton Coliseum. The then-deeply-depleted Horned Frogs forfeited last season’s game in Ames because they said they didn’t have enough healthy players to compete.

“We’re excited to get back home,” Fennelly said. “TCU is a great team.”

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