AMES – No. 10 Iowa State (10-0, 0-0 Big 12) defeated Northern Illinois (2-7, 0-0 MAC), 105-52 Sunday afternoon inside Hilton Coliseum. 10-0 is the Cyclones’ best start to a season since 2013-14 (14-0).
The Cyclones shot 62 percent from the field and 57 percent from three-point range in the dominant victory. Audi Crooks tallied 30 points in the contest, her second-straight game with 30 or more points and third of the season. Addy Brown had a near-triple-double with 10 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Crooks wasted no time getting things going, as she tallied two layups in the first 30 seconds of action to give the Cyclones an early 4-0 lead. The Huskies would answer with two layups in their next two possessions to tie things up at 4. Crooks tallied five more points before the first quarter media timeout, which helped the Cyclones get out to an 11-9 advantage. ISU started to get its outside shooting going after the break, with Kenzie Hare and Arianna Jackson each hitting threes to help push the lead to 24-11 at the end of the period.
Alisa Williams got on the scoreboard with a layup early in the second for the Cyclones, and Jackson followed it up with another triple to extend the lead to 18. Crooks then earned herself a three-point play to bring her point total to 17 with eight minutes left in the first half and put the Cyclone advantage at 32-13. The teams would trade the next few baskets, and the Iowa State would take a 42-20 advantage into the second quarter media timeout. The Cyclones reached the 50-point mark in the first half with Crooks’ 23rd point of the game. Reagan Wilson hit her first triple of the game to help extend the lead to 58-23 heading into the half.
NIU started off the second-half scoring with a three-pointer, but Crooks picked up right where she left off on the other end by getting a layup to go down, followed by a Hare triple to put the Cyclone lead at 63-27. Crooks recorded her 30th point of the game with 6:13 remaining in the third quarter. Iowa State would take an 81-43 advantage into the final period.
Evangelina Paulk got the scoring going for the Cyclones in the fourth quarter, nailing her first three-point attempt of the game. Freya Jensen cashed in her second made three of the season with 3:24 left in the fourth quarter, and the Cyclones reached the 100-point mark with 1:55 remaining in the game via a Lily Taulelei layup. The final buzzer sounded with the scoreboard reading 105-52 in favor of Iowa State.
Top Performers
Audi Crooks recorded 30 points on 13-of-19 shooting in just 19 minutes. Crooks also added four rebounds and one assist.
Up Next
The Cyclones host No. 12 Iowa in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series on Wednesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
Notes
Iowa State women’s basketball’s all-time record moves to 881-678 (.565) and 644-325 (.665) in the Bill Fennelly era.
Fennelly’s career record moves to 810-378 (.682) in his 38-year career.
Iowa State is 10-0 for the fourth time in program history. It is the best start to a season since 2013-14, when the Cyclones started 14-0, the best start in school history.
106 points against Indiana (Nov. 30) and 101 points against NIU marks the first time in program history the Cyclones has finished back-to-back games with 100-plus points.
ISU held NIU to 53 points, the seventh time this season the Cyclones have held an opponent to 60 points or less. Iowa State is 365-31 under Bill Fennelly when holding opponents to under 60 points.
Scoring a game-high 30 points, Audi Crooks extended her double-figure scoring streak to 77 games. She has scored in double digits in every collegiate game except for her Cyclone debut in 2023.
The performance is the 49th 20-plus point scoring game of Crooks’ career and her 11th 30-plus point game as a Cyclone.
With her ninth point of the day, Crooks passed Hallie Christofferson (1,709 points) on Iowa State’s all-time scoring list. She has posted 1,731 points through 78 career games.
The Algona native also scored her 250th point of the season with her fourth point of the day.
Addy Brown tallied her 400th career assist with her first dime of the day. Brown finished with nine assists and is six dimes from cracking Iowa State’s all-time top 10 with 408 career assists.
Kenzie Hare scored her 150th point as a Cyclone, finishing with nine points in today’s win.
Alisa Williams finished with a career-high tying 14 points for her fifth double-figure scoring game in her career and third as a Cyclone.
