Baylor bullies Iowa State for edge on Big 12 women’s basketball crown

AMES — An electric crowd. A marquee, big-stakes matchup. A national TV broadcast.

No. 9 Iowa State had set the stage for a hugely important game against fifth-ranked Baylor Monday at Hilton Coliseum, but couldn’t turn the buildup into the desired result.

Instead, the NaLyssa Smith-led Bears dominated the second and third quarters and rolled to an 87-62 win before 13,907 fans on Senior Night.

“You’ve got to hit a shot once in a while,” said Cyclones Cach Bill Fennelly, whose team (24-5, 13-4) slipped to second place in the Big 12 standings. “You’ve got to get a stop once in a while. They just overwhelmed us with their size.”

Smith stood front and center in that proposition. The 6-foot-4 star scored 28 points and grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds as Baylor (24-5, 14-3) clinched at least a share of its 12th straight regular-season conference crown.

“Skilled,” Fennelly said when describing how tough it is to contend with Smith. “Plays with an edge to her. She’s going to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, so she’s a great, great player.”

So is ISU senior Ashley Joens, who struggled from the field Monday, but still led the Cyclones with 19 points. The former Iowa City High standout and ISU all-time leading scorer missed all eight of her 3-point attempts and fouled out with 6:02 remaining.

“You watch the games on TV or go to them and you dream of being in that position and playing in a competitive game like this,” Joens said. “We just didn’t come ready to go.”

A pair of Joens free throws gave the Cyclones their largest lead, at 24-21, with 6:10 remaining in the first half, but Baylor swiftly responded with a 13-2 run to build an eight-point lead that ballooned to 12 points (41-29) at halftime.

Smith scored eight of her 28 points during that critical stretch that forced ISU into scramble mode.

The Cyclones made just 18.2 percent of their 3-pointers (4-for-22) and were outrebounded 44 to 26. The Bears led by as many as 30 points in the second half.

“We didn’t show up the way we needed to and we’ll have to get better moving forward,” said ISU point guard Emily Ryan, who had 10 points and six assists.

Despite the lopsided setback, Fennelly lauded his team’s body of work and gave thanks to the largest regular-season crowd in ISU women’s basketball history. The Cyclones have set a program record for regular-season wins and technically could still snare a share of their first league title since 2000 with a win Saturday at West Virginia coupled with a Baylor loss against Texas Tech.

“Still plenty of season to go, we’re still 24-5, it’s been a great year,” Fennelly said.

And a stellar four-year career for Joens, who may or may not have played her last regular season game at Hilton Coliseum. The likely future WNBA Draft pick participated in postgame senior night honors, but reiterated that she hasn’t yet decided if she’ll take advantage of the extra year of eligibility the NCAA is affording student-athletes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Every time I step on the court at Hilton I kind of soak it all up, especially with the fan turnout we had (Monday night),” said Joens, who ranks in the top five all-time at ISU in eight major statistical categories. “So every single night I soak it up, but I’ll make my final decision after the season.”