Iowa State women hope recent "statement" leads to win over Arizona

AMES — When Jada Williams flashes “the look,” her teammates know what’s coming.

And when Iowa State’s dynamic point guard fixed her fiery gaze on Cincinnati on Wednesday night, the Bearcats didn’t stand a chance.

“She got that look in her eyes,” backup forward Alisa Williams said. “She wasn’t playin’ around.”

That smoldering look stems from extreme competitiveness — and emerged to help the Cyclones (15-5, 3-5 Big 12) quash a five-game skid entering Saturday’s 3 p.m. matchup with Williams’ former team, Arizona (10-8, 1-6), at Hilton Coliseum.

It also made a “statement,” Williams said after scoring a stunning career-high 44 points on just 22 field goal attempts.

“We belong in the top 25,” she added after the 25-point win. “We’re (an NCAA) Tournament team. We’re a Sweet 16(-caliber) team. And I think we all believe that and if people don’t believe in us, that doesn’t affect us. I think that goes in one ear and goes out the other.”

The return of ISU’s best on-ball defender, Arianna Jackson, also served as a spark. She missed just two weeks after suffering a scary-looking knee injury in the eight-point loss at Cincinnati, and scored 11 points while securing a game-high eight rebounds. Jackson also played 31 minutes — so her return is critical, especially as standout guard/forward Addy Brown remains out indefinitely with a lower body injury.

“Losing Addy Brown is devastating in a lot of ways and everyone knows it,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. “When you lose (her and Jackson) at the same time, that’s a huge thing we just can’t overcome. And obviously, if you lose five games in a row you didn’t overcome it. But what ‘AJ’ can do is not everything Addy can do, but, I mean, she got eight rebounds. She’s pretty solid with the ball. … Just having ‘AJ’ back at practice made everything better, and I thought she played great (on Wednesday), and hopefully she’ll continue to get healthier.”

If she does — and star center Audi Crooks continues to score 20-plus points even on “off nights” — that “look” from Williams can light the path back to the rankings, the top half of the Big 12 standings, and those high hopes for March.

She’s just the sixth Cyclones in program history to score 40 or more points in a game. Crooks has done it three times and Brown’s done it once. And there’s no reason Williams can’t do it again — or at least continue to be an efficient difference-maker down the stretch.

“She’s very influential to our team,” backup point guard Reese Beaty said. “So just seeing that fire, that grit she played with (Wednesday) night, and just the energy, like, it really just sparked the rest of us.”

Now ISU must simply keep the embers glowing and create more sparks as the conference race heats up.

“Kind of like Jada said, we needed to make a statement,” Jackson said. “And even coach ‘Fen’ said in the locker room, ‘Sometimes we just need good things to happen.’ So I think just building off that and going forward, that’s what we need to keep sticking with.”

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