The 2025–26 season has been pretty smooth for the Iowa State women’s basketball team. They had 14 wins to begin the year, all thanks to superstar Audi Crooks.

Crooks has led Iowa State in every win except on Sunday. But even in the recent loss against Baylor, Crooks secured a double-double. Though it ain’t enough to satisfy her!

“I don't think we were at our best tonight,” Audi Crooks shared in the postgame press conference. “My field-goal percentage, trash to my standards—that’s trash. I can’t let that happen again…. When you lose, it really just puts everything out there. You have to look in that mirror and recognize what you have to do better.”

And she’s right. Through the last 15 games, Audi has put up 29.1 points per game with a 71% field-goal shooting percentage. She’s hard to defend. She’s got amazing footwork and a unique frame that makes it even harder to stop her.

Even Bears HC Collen joked that the team would need something supernatural to defend Crooks before the game. But for them, a change in defensive strategy worked wonders.

Rather than one-on-one coverage, Baylor opted to defend Crooks with two players. And the impact was clearly visible, mainly in the second half. She was limited to just four points after halftime. Despite the double-double, her 26 points on 11-of-20 shooting and 55 FG% marked her lowest output so far.

It also broke her five-game winning streak of scoring at least 30 points. So the frustration makes real sense. But while Crooks was limited, another player took over the responsibility.

Jada Williams as MVP for Iowa State

Williams hit a game-tying three-pointer near the end of the fourth quarter. By the end of the game, she had a career-high 28 points with seven assists despite the loss. Still, even she was as unsatisfied with the end result as Crooks.

“I hate losing more than I love winning. That’s something that we don’t take for granted, but don’t get it twisted, nobody can break us,” Williams told Iowa State Daily reporter Aleigha Bailey. “We’re too close to each other, we love each other too much … [Baylor] can’t define us.”

A comeback might be on the way, as Iowa State takes on Cincinnati on Wednesday!

Written by

Yashika Dutta

Edited by

Joyita Das