Iowa State’s Addy Brown Has Perfect Timing in Big 12 Tourney Win
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It isn’t just that Iowa State forward Addy Brown can shoot. It’s her sense of timing that sometimes gives coach Bill Fennelly chills.
Brown scored 16 points in the Cyclones’ 85-68 win over Oklahoma in the semifinals of the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City on Monday. She scored eight points in the second quarter, at a time when OU had slashed Iowa State’s lead to single digits.
She made three baskets — two 3-pointers and one other field goal. Each had meaning in a quarter where Iowa State built a 14-point lead at the half and never looked back.
“There are times I think she doesn’t understand how she can impact the game and defers a little too much,” Fennelly said. “But I think the matchups that we knew we were going to have, we knew there was going to be opportunity for her today.”
Brown is the “other” All-Big 12 Freshman on this team. Audi Crooks had another huge game for the Cyclones, scoring 25 points and nine rebounds. Crooks also got All-Big 12 First Team honors.
But Brown, the 6-foot-2 freshman from Derby, Kan., has been no less important to the Cyclones’ rise to the Big 12 Tournament title game for the second straight year.
She was averaging 13.4 points and 8.5 rebounds entering Monday’s game. She also had nearly five assists, making her a perfect complement to Ryan, one of the best point guards in the conference. She can also shoot nearly 38 percent from the 3-point line, and that came in handy on Monday.
She made four 3-pointers. Her first came with 6:14 left and pushed Iowa State’s lead from five points to eight points as Oklahoma frantically tried to cut into Iowa State’s lead.
Brown’s layup with 3:03 left pushed the Cyclones’ lead back to nine points.
But the 3-pointer she hit at the end of the half might have just sealed the game.
It was a play Fennelly and his staff called specifically for Brown and she drained the shot with five seconds left, giving Iowa State a 38-24 lead.
Maybe “sealed” isn’t the right word. Maybe the better word is “momentum,” as Ryan put it.
“I think anytime you hit a big shot at the end of the (half), you’re gonna be sitting on that last play for a while,” Ryan said. “So it was a huge hit by her and it was just a lot of excitement. She’s willing to actually hit the shot and that’s what’s fun.”
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
