It was an incredible weekend of Iowa basketball for fans across the entire state. The Iowa Hawkeye women's basketball team took care of business against Holy Cross. Even if Caitlin Clark and her dad had an interesting moment during the game, you know the Hawkeyes and Caitlin will be ready to go tonight against West Virginia. The Iowa State men's team beat 10th-seeded Kansas State, and the Iowa State women made NCAA history in their first game.

Sadly, the Iowa State Cyclone women's basketball team was knocked out of the tournament yesterday (March 24), as they played in one of the most exciting basketball games of the entire tournament. They entered the second round as underdogs against the number 2 seed, Standford Cardinals. The game went down the wire as the Cyclones pushed the number 2 seed into overtime.

Iowa State ended up losing 87-81 but were you aware of the history they made in round 1 of the tournament?

Maryland vs Iowa State

If you missed this game from last Friday (March 22), Iowa State made the second-largest comeback of all time in a women's NCAA tournament game. They were able to come back after being down 50-30 late in the second quarter. Audi Crooks, a Freshman at Iowa State, was showered with water by her teammates after the game.

Audi Crooks

According to ESPN, Audi Crooks grabbed the Iowa state nameplate and placed it in the second round of the tournament. On Friday night, she scored a career-high 40 points, which is the most by a freshman in women's NCAA tournament history and she made 18 out of 20 shots.

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After the game, Audi shared how thankful she was. She said

"I'm just grateful. I can't say thank you enough to the people that I'm surrounded by. When you're surrounded by people that you love, that care about you, that trust you as much as they do getting you the ball, that speaks volumes to how we play as a unit. That was so fun, my teammates soaked me in water."

Crooks is now only the 4th player in Iowa State's program history to score 40 points in a game. This is the most points in an NCAA tournament debut in the past 25 years and is the second most in a debut of all time, according to ESPN. She also tied Brittney Griner with the most points for a Big 12 player in the history of the tournament.

While Iowa State's tournament run has ended, this women's team provided an incredible amount of entertainment during the first two rounds. They made one of the biggest comebacks in NCAA history and took the number 2 seed to a thrilling overtime game.

 

While it might not have gone as these ladies planned, they all represented Iowa well and there are a lot of things to be excited about for this Cyclones team in the future.

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