In a game that featured two of the Big 12’s best young post players, Arizona and Iowa State relied on their perimeter players. The Cyclones’ guards were far more effective in a 79-58 win in McKale Center on Saturday afternoon.
Sophomores Audi Crooks and Breya Cunningham played to a virtual draw for most of the first half. Neither scored until Crooks hit a layup with 3:22 left in the second quarter. After the first half, Crooks had six points and four rebounds. She had two turnovers but no fouls.
Cunningham didn’t have any points, but she had a huge impact on her team with eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and one steal in the first 20 minutes. She committed no fouls and no turnovers in the first half. She finally got in the scoring column at 7:22 in the third quarter, cutting the ISU lead to four.
“They were icing on on-balls, and our posts were standing, not rolling,” Barnes said.
Making it a four-point game was a big deal for Arizona. The Wildcats struggled mightily for most of the first half. An extremely questionable charge called on Skylar Jones didn’t help, but most of the damage was simply because Arizona couldn’t shut down Sydney Harris. Harris went 4 for 6 in the first half, scoring 10. She ended with a game high 24 points.
“I was glad to see Sky do better today,” said Arizona head coach Adia Barnes. “I thought she had some tough calls. I was sad about that because she was great yesterday, feeling good. Comes in locked in, and then gets two bad calls. That was rough. So I actually let her play through with two fouls, because I wanted her to get a little bit confident.”
The home team finally woke up with 3:22 to go in the half. Crooks got her first two points of the game for ISU, then Arizona came alive.
A Lauryn Swann 3-pointer was followed by a Jada Williams layup. A Paulina Paris 3-pointer was followed by another Williams layup. Then, Swann ended the half with a buzzer-beater from halfcourt. It was a six-point game going into the half.
Much like Arizona’s offensive explosion after Crooks first scored, Iowa State took off when the opposing post player finally got on the board.
Cunningham finally scored with 7:22 to go in the third quarter, making it a four-point game. From that point, ISU went on a 12-0 run to break the game open again.
The Cyclones went to the same well over and over. When they weren’t being left open for 3-point shots, they were hitting cutters. The closest Arizona got to them in the fourth quarter was 11 points, but the lead was as large as 22.
Barnes often talks about how their are tradeoffs to be made, especially with freshmen who are still learning to play college-level defense. They may score a lot of points, but they can give them right back on the other end. That was true in this game, as several of Cyclones’ 3-point shots were on late close-outs by Swann.
“I think that what really hurt us was that Audi Crooks demands a lot of attention inside, and so that made us really out of position for the weak side, and I don’t know why,” Barnes said. “Some of that was Lauryn, as a freshman, being out of position a lot. She gave up a lot of 3s on the back side. But when we explained to her, I think it was just the understanding, if the ball is in the wing and she’s really low in helpside and not on the line of the ball, it’s very hard to get out to shooters. And they killed us on that. They put a shooter opposite and continuing. So just teaching her—and we showed her some clips on the bench—but just teaching her to be on the line of the ball, move on the air time so you can get there. Because if you’re so low, you can’t get there. And we continue to make that mistake, and that really, really hurt us.”
ISU came in with only two players averaging double figure, Crooks and Addy Brown. Crooks was held to her lowest point total and fewest shots of the season. Brown was held below her season average. Two other players were able to pick up the slack, scoring above their averages to give the Cyclones four in double figures.
In addition to Harris with 24 points, Crooks had 11, Brown had 10, and Emily Ryan had 15.
The Wildcats had just one player in double figures. Williams scored 17 on 6-for-14 shooting. She added four rebounds, four assists, and one steal. However, she was one of several Wildcats who took shots earlier in the shot clock than Barnes would have liked.
Cunningham only scored seven points, but she added eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks. She didn’t pick up any fouls in the first half but ended up fouling out late in the game.
The Wildcats played without sophomore forward Sahnya Jah for the second time this season. While Barnes simply said Jah was unavailable when she missed the game against Grand Canyon, this time the head coach was more explicit.
“She is not with the team,” Barnes said. “Coach’s decision.”
The absence came after several issues with Jah’s body language and behavior at practice and games earlier in the season. Then, she made several questionable posts on Instagram over the past week.
It appeared that the program tried to give Jah the benefit of the doubt after the first one, when she commented on Barnes asking her about her turnovers. The player had committed five against UCF and leads the team with 48 this season. Her 7.4 turnovers per 40 minutes are in the bottom first percentile in Division I. She ranks 3,409th among all DI players. In her post, she looked frustrated at the idea of being asked, then replied that they were just a “mistake.”
Jah upped the ante after the Baylor game, posting a picture of herself and Barnes with text implying that coaches don’t tell the truth about her. At this point, Barnes seldom mentions Jah unless directly asked, so it was unclear what comments the player was taking exception to.