Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus UW-Oshkosh (Ex.) on October 28, 2025 at 6:30 PM
6:30 PM
Women's Basketball
UW-Oshkosh (Ex.)
Iowa State University Athletics
2024-25 Cyclone Women's Basketball Season in Review
04.09.2025 | Women's Basketball
AMES, Iowa - Iowa State women's basketball finished its 30th season with head coach Bill Fennelly at the helm, making its 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance and recording its 19th 20-win season in program history. The Cyclones earned their sixth consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships, one of just 15 women's basketball programs nationally to manage the feat.
One of the many highlights from the 2024-25 season occurred on Senior Day, as Iowa State downed No. 14 Kansas State, 85-63 in Hilton Coliseum. Emily Ryan, the lone senior on the Cyclone roster, finished the day with 17 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, one of the most well-rounded performances of her career for her Hilton Coliseum finale.Â
ISU also took down Princeton in NCAA Championship First Four action, defeating the Tigers, 68-63 in Notre Dame, Indiana. The win sealed Fennelly's 800th career win, making him just the 17th all-time NCAA Division I women's basketball head coach to reach the milestone. Fennelly is the all-time winningest coach at Iowa State, regardless of sport.
FENNELLY'S MEMORABLE RETURN TO NOTRE DAME
Before he began his legendary run as a head coach, Bill Fennelly spent two seasons at Notre Dame as an assistant coach from 1986-88. Fennelly worked under North Star Conference Coach of the Year Mary DiStanislao (1986-87) and future Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw (1987-88). He helped the Fighting Irish to a 32-23 record over his two-season stint before being hired as Toledo's head coach ahead of the 1988-89 season. On March 19th in the NCAA First Four round against Princeton, Fennelly coached the Cyclones to a 68-63 victory. The win marked the 800th of his career with 634 victories occurring with Iowa State.
WELCOME TO THE EMILY RYAN DISH-TRIBUTION CENTER
Emily Ryan finishes her career as one of Iowa State's most prolific point guards, recording top five career marks in assists, steals and blocks and the 11th all-time leading scorer. The Claflin, Kansas native recorded 993 career assists over 153 games, holding the all-time best mark in program history by nearly 250 dimes and the seventh best total in NCAA DI women's basketball history.
She is the active NCAA women's basketball leader for assists with her career total ... Kentucky's Georgia Amoore is second with 869 dimes. The 5-11 guard recorded a career assist/ turnover ratio of 1.97. Ryan also owns the top Iowa State mark for single-season (249) and single-game (17) assists. Over her five seasons, she tallied single game assists at every mark, 1-17 ... Ryan never finished a game with less than one assist through 153 career games. ISU's floor general finished nine career games with multiple assists and no turnovers. She owns the second most career wins at Iowa State (106) behind Ashley Joens' (2019-23) 111.
CROOKS COOKS
Audi Crooks has garnered national attention as one of the nation's most exciting post players. Crooks has scored in double figures in 67 straight games and finished with 20+ points 41 times in her 68-game career. With 36 points and 14-of-18 shooting
against K-State to end the regular season, she posted a new season high and her 14th career game shooting 75 percent or better from the floor. The 6-3 center scored 33 points against Drake (Nov. 24) on 15-of-25 shooting from the floor, including the game-winning bucket with less than one second to play. She matched the point total against both Kansas (Jan. 1) and Colorado (Feb. 8).
Crooks was one of the top players in NCAA Division I for field goal percentage last season, shooting 57.7 percent from the floor ... she shot 60.5 percent this season for the 10th-best mark in the country and first in the Big 12. Crooks holds the best single season mark regardless of class in ISU history with 329 makes, besting her own record from a season ago (258). She holds the best sophomore season total after passing Tonya Burns' previous best (191). Crooks has totaled 276 made free throws through 68 career games.
The 6-3 center was named a National Player of the Week by both the Associated Press and US Basketball Writer's of America as well as the Big 12 Player of the Week on March 4, 2025 for her week against UCF and Kansas State.
1,000 POINT QUEEN
Iowa State sophomore Audi Crooks became the program's 35th 1,000 point scorer with her 23rd point against Utah (Jan. 5). Crooks is the fastest Cyclone to score 1,000 points, reaching the mark in 49 games. She passed all-time leading scorer Ashley Joens as the fastest ISU player to 1,000 points, the previous best in 64 games. Crooks is also the third fastest Big 12 women's basketball player to reach 1,000 points behind Courtney Paris (Oklahoma, 46) and Sheila Lambert (Baylor, 48).
Among a loaded sophomore class nationally, Crooks was the third NCAA Division I player in her class to score 1,000 points at one institution behind JuJu Watkins (USC) and Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame). Crooks owns the fourth best career scoring average (21.4 PPG) among active NCAA DI women's basketball players and ranks ninth overall. Each of the top five NCAA DI career scorers are sophomores and juniors: Watkins (USC), Hidalgo (Notre Dame), Ta'Niya Latson (Florida State), Crooks (Iowa State), Raegan McCowan (Western Ill.).
ALL-AMERICAN AUDI
Audi Crooks became Iowa State's first freshman to earn All-America status and repeated with national accolades as a sophomore. Crooks earned All-America status again as a sophomore as a third team selection for both the Associated Press and USBWA. The 6-3 center was also WBCA Honorable Mention All-America.
She was named a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 First Team on March 4, joining Bridget Carleton and Ashley Joens as the only Cyclones to be unanimously selected to the first team multiple times in their careers (unanimous Big 12 selections were
announced beginning in 2009-10). She was featured on the WBCA Wade Trophy Top 15, Naismith Trophy Midseason Team, the Wooden Award Late Season Top 25 and the Lisa Leslie Award Top 5 watch lists.
Crooks was a unanimous First-Team All- Big 12 selection in 2023-24, one of just four in the conference and a first for an ISU freshman. She was also a member of the Big 12 All-Tournament team and All-Freshman team in 2023-24.
OH, THE WONDERFUL THINGS ADDY BROWN CAN DO
Iowa State sophomore Addy Brown is one of the most well-rounded players in college basketball. Brown is a complete triple threat for scoring, rebounding and distributing.
As a freshman, the Derby, Kansas native became the only player in program history to record 400 points, 250 rebounds and 150 assists in a single season (2023-24). She completed the feat again in 2024-25, becoming only the sixth player in NCAA women's basketball in the last 25 years to have two seasons with 400 points, 250 rebounds and 150 assists. Brown averaged 15.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game and shot 48.7 percent from the floor.
She was named the Big 12 Player of the Week after averaging 25.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game against Top 15 opponents Kansas State and TCU. Brown poured in a career-high 41 points, including 24 in the first half,
against Arizona State to lead ISU to the quarterfinal round of the 2025 Big 12 Championship. The 6-2 forward became just the fourth Cyclone to finish with at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in an NCAA Tournament game (22/7/8) against Princeton.
She tallied her eighth and final double-double of the season and 18th of her career with 12 points and 12 rebounds against Houston (Feb. 19). Her double-double total is ninth-best among Iowa State players.
2024-25 TEAM LEADERS
Points: Audi Crooks (820)*
Field Goals: Audi Crooks (329)*
FG Percentage: Audi Crooks (.605, 329-544)
3-Point Field Goals: Sydney Harris (61)
3FG Percentage: Sydney Harris (.462, 61-132)
Free Throws: Audi Crooks (162)
FT Percentage: Emily Ryan (.944, 68-72)*
Rebounds: Addy Brown (268)
Assists: Emily Ryan (211)
Steals: Emily Ryan (60)
Blocks: Audi Crooks (25)
*Denotes School Record
OTHER NOTABLES
- Iowa State enjoyed its 19th 20-win season and appeared in its 23rd NCAA Tournament in the 2024-25 season.
- Head coach Bill Fennelly led ISU to a NCAA First Four win over Princeton, the 800th victory of his career.
- Iowa State is one of 15 programs nationally to make six-straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament (2019-20 excluded due to coronavirus pandemic).
- Iowa State's "big three" of Addy Brown, Audi Crooks and Emily Ryan earned All-Big 12 recognition at the end of the regular season.
- Crooks earned her second unanimous selection to the first team while Brown was a second team honoree and Emily Ryan was honorable mention.
- Crooks was also selected Third-Team All-America by the Associated Press and US Basketball Writers Association and was WBCA Coaches All-America Honorable Mention.
- Crooks has scored in double figures in 67 straight games with 10 double-doubles and was a three-time Big 12 Player of the Week selection in 2024-25.
- She became Iowa State's 35th 1,000 point scorer on Jan. 5 against Utah and is the fastest Cyclone and third-fastest Big 12 player to 1,000 points in 49 games.
- Emily Ryan, Iowa State's and the Big 12's all-time assists leader, recorded her 900th career assist against Texas Tech (Jan. 14) ... she led active collegiate women's basketball players and is seventh all-time in NCAA Division I, finishing her career with 993 assists.
- Ryan scored her 1,500th career point on Jan. 31 at Kansas State, becoming just the third NCAA women's basketball player to tally at least 1,500 points, 600 rebounds and 900 assists in her career (Sabrina Ionescu, Caitlin Clark) ... Ryan ended her career with 1,632 points, 656 rebounds and 993 assists.
- Brown completed her second recording over 400 points, 250 rebounds and 150 assists, only the sixth NCAA women's basketball player since 1999-2000 to manage multiple seasons with the combination.
- The Derby, Kansas native recorded top five all-time Iowa State sophomore marks in all three categories.
- In his 30th season at the helm, Bill Fennelly is the winningest coach in Iowa State athletics history and 17th all-time among NCAA DI women's basketball coaches ... his 800 career wins are also third-most among active NCAA Division I head coaches.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
C
/ Women's Basketball
G/F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballAudi Crooks 7_15_25 interview
Tuesday, July 15
Bill Fennelly 7_15_25 interview
Tuesday, July 15
Inside Iowa State WBB
Friday, June 06
WBB Post-Game Press Conference vs. Michigan
Friday, March 21
