The Iowa State women play fourth ranked UConn Tuesday night in the Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase. The Cyclones are 9-3 and dropped out of the AP Poll after last week’s loss at Iowa. UConn is 9-1 and suffered its first loss of the season last week to Notre Dame.

That’s ISU coach Bill Fennelly who says UConn coach Geno Auriema (R-E-em-uh) reached out in the off-season about the Cyclones taking part in the event.

The Cyclones have already played second ranked South Carolina and sophomore forward Addy Brown feels that was good preparation for this game.

That will be the second half of the doubleheader. In the opener fifth ranked LSU will play Seton Hall.

The Drake women raced out to a 40-14 lead at halftime and crushed South Carolina Upstate 84-34 today in the Knapp Center. The game was played in front of a large number of elementary school kids. The Bulldogs were 14 of 38 from three point range and coach Allison Pohlman says the Bulldogs need more quality shots from behind the arc.

Pohlman believes the perimeter shooting will improve.

The Bulldogs improve to 5-5.

Northern Iowa football coach Todd Stepsis announced a 10-member coaching staff that includes three members of former Panther coach Mark Farley’s staff and seven who coached for Stepsis at Drake.

Stepsis says the new coaching staff will fan out across the state of Iowa beginning Tuesday to visit high schools in hopes of rebuilding in-state recruiting.

Stepsis says the goal is to visit every high school in the state of Iowa this week.

DES MOINES, IOWA – As the excited shrieks from thousands of youngsters resonated through the Knapp Center, the Drake women’s basketball team kept them entertained with a decisive victory. Eight players scored between seven and 11 points and Drake won for the third straight time, beating USC Upstate 84-34 on Monday in the annual Character Counts! Day game, which drew students from 47 schools around the state.

Drake squared its record at 5-5 for the season after a 2-5 start despite an uneven day offensively. The Bulldogs compensated by throttling their opponent from the Big South Conference on the defensive end, holding the Spartans (2-10) to 20.4 percent shooting, coming up with 17 steals and forcing 27 turnovers in all. The Spartans’ 34 points were the fewest allowed by the Bulldogs since Iowa Wesleyan scored 25 during the 2017-18 season.

The steals were a season high, and the turnovers were the most by a Drake opponent this season. The shooting percentage was a season low for an opponent. Brooklin Dailey led the scoring with 11 points, which matched her career high. Ava Hawthorne added 10 points, while Katie Dinnebier, Anna Miller and Grace Knutson each scored nine. Freshman Maggie Taylor grabbed 11 rebounds to go with seven points, both career highs. Abbie Aalsma and Shannon Fornshell also scored seven points each.

Dinnebier moved from seventh to third on Drake’s season list for steals with three in the game’s first 6 minutes and finished with six to match her career best. She has 90 for the season, second behind Linda Sayavongchanh’s 105 in the 2003-04 season. Miller’s nine points lifted her into 30th place on Drake’s career scoring list with 1,216. She also grabbed eight rebounds and matched her season highs with four assists and two steals.

Drake finished with a 48-29 rebounding edge, the eighth time in 10 games the Bulldogs outrebounded their opponent, and had a 29-9 bulge in points off turnovers. During the middle two quarters, Drake held Upstate to five field goals and 11 points.

Drake will hit the road for its next two games, playing at St. Thomas on Dec. 29 and opening Missouri Valley Conference play at Evansville on Jan. 2. The Bulldogs’ next home game is Jan. 2 against UIC at 6 p.m.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State women’s basketball sophomore Audi Crooks has been named the Big 12 Player of the Week. It is the first weekly award for Crooks this season and her third league player of the week award of her career.

The 6-3 center averaged over 30 points in Iowa State’s two games this week. Crooks poured in 31 points at No. 21 Iowa on Wednesday night, shooting 14-of-22 from the field before following up with 30 points Sunday night against Eastern Illinois. It was the first time an Iowa State player has posted back-to-back 30-plus point games since Ashley Joens finished with 33 and 36 against Texas and UT Arlington, respectively, in March 2022.

The Algona, Iowa native leads Iowa State this season with 21.6 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game. In 45 career games, she has scored in double figures 44 consecutive times and totaled 894 points.

Iowa State will face off with No. 4 UConn on Tuesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be televised on FS1.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State wide receiver Jayden Higgins was named a Third-Team All-American by The Associated Press on Monday morning.

Higgins, already a Second-Team All-American by The Athletic and an All-Big 12 selection, has hauled in 87 receptions for 1,183 yards and nine touchdowns in 13 games. Those totals all rank second on ISU’s single-season charts.

His 1,183 receiving yards are the fourth-most nationally this season.

The South Miami, Florida native has caught a touchdown pass in nine of 13 games and is averaging 6.7 receptions per game, a top-15 mark nationally. Higgins has five 100-yard receiving games this season.

He ranks second among all FBS receivers with a 90.2 offensive ranking on PFF, while his 90.5 receiving grade is also second nationally. Both are tops nationally among wide receivers with at least 100 receiving snaps.

No. 18 Iowa State is back in action against No. 15 Miami Dec. 28 at the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, Florida.