Iowa State women rout shorthanded Arizona, 90-65, Saturday at Hilton

AMES — Left, right, left, right, left right.

The Iowa State pep band chants these words to match an opposing players’ cadence after drawing a fifth foul and walking off the court.

It’s not unique to Hilton Coliseum, of course, but the repetitive words formed a unique and long-running soundtrack on Saturday as five Arizona players fouled out in the Cyclones’ whistle-filled and utterly dominant 90-65 win that played about before 10,165 fans.

“It’s kind of weird, I guess, for everyone,” said ISU head coach Bill Fennelly, whose team (16-5, 4-5) finished the game playing five-on-four because the Wildcats (10-9, 1-7) ran out of eligible players. “Obviously you don’t plan for that. You don’t have plays for that. You just want the game to get over. If (the officials) got paid by the foul call, they made some good money.”

Fortunately for the Cyclones, 31 of the game’s 44 fouls were called on Arizona — and for good reason.

“We have a fouling problem right now,” the Wildcats’ first-year head coach Becky Burke said. ISU had no problem notching its second straight win on the heels of its first five-game losing streak in a decade. The Cyclones shot a torrid 71.4 percent in the first half while building a 53-29 lead, and eventually held serve to secure their second consecutive 25-point victory.

The one constant in both of those triumphs? Stunning efficiency from Arizona transfer guard Jada Williams, who followed up her career-high 44-point performance in the win over Cincinnati by scoring a team-high 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting against her former team. Williams — a career 38 percent shooter — is 23 of 33 from the field (70 percent) in the past two games. The dynamic junior from Kansas City added seven assists and four rebounds in Saturday’s victory despite feeling so sick she didn’t participate in the morning shootaround, and was a game-time decision.

“We found out probably 45 minutes before the game that she wanted to try it,” Fennelly said. “She’s a tough kid. She loves to play. She’s as tough as any kid on our team. She’ll probably tell me she had seven turnovers because she was sick, but she’s a baller.”

So is star center Audi Crooks, who scored 17 points in a season-low 18 minutes while dealing with foul trouble. Recently-returned standout guard Arianna Jackson added 15 points and drilled a game-high four 3-pointers.

The Cyclones also got a strong boost from their bench, as reserves Sydney Harris and Alisa Williams combined for 26 points. Reese Beaty added five points and six assists as a nonstarter, as well, helping ISU to craft a 32-to-11 edge in bench points.

“When you have a lot of (scorers), they’ve gotta pick their poison of what they’re gonna guard,” said Harris, who totaled 14 points and went 3-for-5 from 3-point range. “So I think this just was a really good showcase of what our team is made of.”

So the Cyclones will enter Wednesday’s tough road test at No. 19 Texas Tech with renewed confidence — and finally on a winning streak after suffering through those five straight losses. And there’s nothing “weird” about that.

“We had a good week,” Fennelly said. “We needed a good week.”

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