The lady started the week off with a major upset, which puts them a game ahead of where I thought they might be at this point. What would happen while visiting a very good Texas team in a hostile environment.
The game started off with Texas being incredibly hot shooting hitting over 70% during the first five minutes They jumped out to a 7 to 1 lead, before the Cyclones started to answer. The ball was being forced inside just a little bit too much and Texas expected it countering rather nicely for the most part. Ryan would extend the three-point streak by hitting one halfway through the quarter to make the game 12 to 8 Texas. The ladies were back to running the zone, and again there were holes present. It was allowing Texas to hit three-pointers and after Iowa State had closed within 12 to 10 Texas hit a pair to stretch the lead to 18 to 10. Joens would answer the Texas barrage with a three of her own, but Texas just wasn’t missing many shots. Quick passing would find Belanger for a late triple to close within 4, 22 to 18. Iowa State would get the last possession and turn the ball over giving Texas one more chance. The Longhorns would miss a wide open three and at the end of one Texas led 22 to 18.
The sisters would score 1st in the second to pull within 2. Beautiful inside outside play Crooks to Joens to Crooks for two. AJ would hit a trey and give Iowa State a 24 to 23 lead. Crooks was looking very good down low. Her teammates were doing a fantastic job of feeding her the ball and she’s finishing. It’s good to see Bristow in the game and contributing. After moving out to a 31 to 28 lead, Crooks would get blocked and Texas would tie the game on free throws after a Brown foul. The sisters would come up blank on several possessions before Texas would finally hit a shot to take the lead 33 to 31. Crooks was on the bench at this point and Nelly missed a layup (too hard) and turned the ball over on the next possession. Five straight empty possessions for the sisters. Fortunately, Texas was also struggling a little bit, but those empty possessions were allowing Texas to slowly build a lead after a 9-0 run. Having Crooks on the bench was killing the sisters. Our outside shooters were not getting loose and when they do, they were missing. Ryan would end the drought with a drive for a layup and Texas led 37 to 33. Texas was beating the heck out of our players and getting away with it and it has allowed them to stretch their lead to 43-33. Texas ends the quarter on a 15 to 2 run. Ryan continues to struggle shooting missing two bunny layups at the end of the quarter. Texas led 43 to 33 at the break.
The second half would start with both teams missing on consecutive possessions. Crooks would end that drought with another score inside and Gonzalez for Texas would answer right back. Crooks was being rewarded for her hustle with lots of nice feeds. What’s really hurting Iowa State up to this point in the game is the lack of an outside offensive presence. Two minutes into the quarter and Iowa State had one basket, one free throw and a bunch of misses. Our zone defense continued to have leaks allowing Texas to get open shots off. AJ would hit a trey and Texas would answer right back with an inside shot. Texas was doing just enough to maintain their 10 point lead. Our defense was making it way too easy. Brown would hit a three to cut the lead to 7. Crooks would follow with a pair of free throws to cut the lead to five. This is where the wheels started to fall off once more. Texas would answer, and an errant pass by Ryan would turn the ball over once more. With three minutes left in the quarter Texas would accumulate enough fouls that Iowa State was in the bonus the rest of the way. Unfortunately, the sisters are missing too many at the line. The sisters are in a low right now missing on all of their possessions and Texas was slowly pulling back out into a bigger lead 58 to 50. We turned the ball over on the last possession and that is where the quarter would end. So far the team is turning the ball over on 20% of their possessions.
Quarter 4 starts with four freshmen on the floor. Both teams are missing on each end and Texas finally ends the scoring drought with free throws extending their lead back to ten. It seems like all of that work to narrow the lead down to a very manageable score disappeared in a heartbeat. Texas would grab the ball from Ryan on the other end go full court for a layup, and the lead was 12. The turnovers are starting to add up. At this point one statistic that is very telling about the holes in our defense is that Texas was hitting 50% from the floor. The free throw woes would continue with Brown hitting one of two. On defense it was our quarter to foul. We kept putting Texas on the line. Lead is 13 with 7:40 left. Another cyclone turnover leads to another easy basket in Texas leads by 15. Iowa state answers by Brown missing an easy layup on the other end. The game was slowly getting away from the sisters. Texas would again score, and Iowa State would again turn the ball over and it was 68-51. The Sisters cannot buy a shot and Texas just kept scoring. Overcoming a 19 point lead with five minutes left was going to be nearly insurmountable. Especially since Texas was not missing many shots. Our defense was not slowing them down at all. Even when things appeared to go well for Iowa State, it didn’t end up that way. For example, the sisters had a two on one opportunity and Brown ended up getting her shot blocked rather than making the extra pass. The sisters would continue to miss and Texas would continue to score. Beautiful pass from Ryan to Brown and she misses another easy layup. Nothing is going in for the sisters and they are behind by 21. It almost appeared as if Texas was toying with them in the end as they moved the ball steadily and quickly even passing up some easy shots until they finally scored. Fittingly, Iowa State’s last real shot was a missed three. Texas dominated the fourth quarter and wins 81 to 60.
Observations
The sisters hung around and battled hard for much of the game. The end of the first half (a Texas 15 to 2 run) and the end of the third-quarter doomed them. The outside shooting game was pretty miserable throughout the afternoon and that really hurt. What hurt worse was our defense was back to being incredibly leaky, and incredibly slow compared to Texas. They were able to slash and drive almost at will. Texas also dominated the boards. Texas didn’t have much of a “big girl” inside game, but their guards clearly outclassed ours.
POG - Crooks. Who else could it be? She personally kept Iowa State in this ball game with her scoring. But she is not capable of winning a game all by herself. Ended up with 24 points, but only three rebounds and four turnovers.
Joens - all over the freaking court as usual, but not as much to show for at this game with four points and four rebounds.
AJ - Not perfect by any measure, but she continues to show incredible confidence. It’s the lack of consistency whether it’s scoring or dishing the ball that has to change.
Ryan - still struggling to score from anywhere, but the free throw line. Seven points, seven assists, and four turnovers.
Brown - another bad day of shooting in the books for our freshman. She was missing layups as well as outside shots.
Bristow - nice to see her back and I think only time on court will help her overcome some of the mistakes she makes four rebounds and three turnovers with no points.
Natabou - as good as she was last game against Kansas State, she had a rough and brief outing today. And only 7 minutes of play she had two points, two rebounds and three fouls.
Belanger - this was not a good game for the senior. Couldn’t hit anything from outside (one for six) and got chewed up on defense several times.
Defense - i’m quite honestly puzzled why the sisters have moved back to playing zone exclusively. Texas moves the ball well enough and their guards are quick enough that the openings that we leave we cannot recover in time. They continue to take advantage all game almost scoring at will.
Rebounding - when our ladies get out rebounded it’s never a good thing. When it has happened this year, it’s ended up with a loss. Texas dominated the boards today and every way imaginable.
Turnovers – we all know what a bugaboo this has been for our team this year. They had 16 today resulting in 14 Texas points. They make a difference. The sisters turned the ball over right at 20% of their possessions. You can’t win games doing that. Especially when the other team shoots 50% from the field.
There were a lot of things that I was glad to see in this game. For one, the ladies came out, ready to battle and did quite well until the last few minutes of the first half. Crooks went to the bench and when that happened the wheels just fell off, allowing Texas to go on a 15 to 2 run to close the half. The third quarter saw the ladies battle back and actually close within five points. But again the wheels fell off the bus with turnovers and a plethora of missed shots plaguing the sisters. In the end, it clearly was a much better team, taking advantage of every opportunity that our young team offered them.
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