No. 14 Iowa State uses stifling defense to stymie St. Thomas, 85-36, in women’s basketball opener

AMES — She’s tough. She’s skilled. She’s always felt like she has something to prove.

And those are just the most prominent traits Iowa State’s true freshman backup point guard, Reese Beaty, showcases on the floor.

“She is fearless,” Cyclones head coach Bill Fennelly said after Beaty scored five points, grabbed four rebounds, and dished out four assists in 16 minutes of his 14th-ranked team’s 85-36 romp past St. Thomas (Minn.) in its season opener Monday at Hilton Coliseum. “We have a lot of kids our fans really like, but I would say that Reese and (transfer Evangelia Paulk) are gonna have a lot of fans the more we play.”

Both of those newcomers came off the bench to aid a stifling ISU defensive effort that held the Tommies to 10 points over one 22-minute stretch and outscored them 29-3 in points off turnovers.

“Ball pressure, with these new pieces and with our expansion of knowledge with gaining again and gaining experience — that’s something that comes with time,” said the Cyclones’ star center Audi Crooks, who scored a game-high 20 points in 25 minutes. “That’s not something that a lot of people are born with, let alone when you input freshman and the transfer portal, you’ve got to find rotations that mesh well, and I think we did a lot of work in the summer. We really didn’t talk about offense from June to maybe August.”

Addy Brown added 11 points, six rebounds and six assists for ISU, which used a 19-0 first-half run to turn a 22-16 edge into an eventual 43-19 halftime lead. The Tommies made just two of their 19 3-point attempts — an area the Cyclones struggled in defensively last season.

“It was my fault because we tried to play a certain way, and we were so offensive-minded,” Fennelly said.

Beaty and several of her teammates — newcomers and returning stars alike — are simply tough-minded, playing with that so-called chip on their shoulders.

“I’ve never been the tallest or the quickest or the strongest, but just playing hard and having that mindset has got me through a lot of things,” the 5-foot-8 Beaty said.

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