AMES – The Iowa State women’s basketball team enters the 2025-26 season with a ton of excitement and plenty of high hopes.
The Cyclones showed why on Tuesday.
Iowa State unofficially opened the heavily anticipated campaign with an 84-53 win over UW-Oshkosh in an exhibition game at Hilton Coliseum on Oct. 28.
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“That was good,” said Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly. “I really was very, very happy with everything.”
Iowa State’s win, which won’t count, still matters in many ways as the Cyclones showed just how good a team they could be this season.
Audi Crooks tallied 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Cyclones. Addy Brown followed with 17 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Newcomer Jada Williams, who transferred from Arizona, finished with eight points and seven assists in her first game as a Cyclone.
“We had a lot of fun,” Williams said.
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It was precisely the type of performance expected out of an Iowa State team picked to finish second in the Big 12 Conference and entered the season as a consensus top 25 team in both the USA TODAY Sports Network Coaches (17) and Associated Press (14) polls.
Crooks and Brown were a huge reason why the Cyclones were able to coast to an easy victory over a UW-Oshkosh team that is ranked third among all three Division III teams in the nation. The two were also a big reason why the Cyclones were able to roll from start to finish.
Crooks had 19 points at the half while Brown followed with 10 in the first two quarters. Crooks jump-started a 7-0 run in the second quarter with a layup. A steal and a layup by Reese Beaty capped it off, giving the Cyclones a 46-28 lead.
More: How watching Purdue basketball helps Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly
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Iowa State continued to punish UW-Oshkosh and rolled into halftime up 21.
“I think we’re kind of starting good habits,” Williams said.
Those good habits continued into the second half with Brown and Kenzie Hare hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to put Iowa State ahead 57-36 in the third quarter. The Cyclones shot 51.6% (36-of-62) from the field but just 29.4% (5-17) from 3-point range. The Cyclones were relentless on defense, tallying 19 points off 14 turnovers.
“Our effort was good,” Fennelly said. “We shared the ball. Obviously, we need to shoot the ball a little bit better, over time, which I think we can.”
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Hare, who missed most of last season with a hip injury, scored six points. Iowa State also got nine points from Beaty and eight from Harris. It was a near-flawless night for the Cyclones, who are trying to tune out any distractions that may come from entering the season as one of the top teams in the country.
The win was just a tune-up for the season, which officially starts when Iowa State hosts St. Thomas on Nov. 3. That’s when the excitement of the season really begins and the expectations truly grow.
“It’s exciting,” Brown said. “Coach Fenn said though, we’re not going to pay too much attention to the outside noise, good or bad. People will have good things to say about tonight and even some bad things to say and that’s fine. We just really care about what’s going on in our lock room.”
Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State women’s basketball rolls exhibition win over UW-Oshkosh
