Houston women’s basketball falls to Crooks, Iowa State 80-62 in Big 12 home opener

Houston women’s basketball entered its Big 12 conference home-opener knowing the tall task that laid in front of it.

A task no team had accomplished so far this season, pressing the pause button on the Audi Crooks show and No. 10 Iowa State’s now 14-0 start to the season.

Crooks and junior guard Jada Williams would finish with 35 and 16 points respectively, to beat Houston 80-62 and hand the Cougars their seventh loss of the season and second in as many conference games. 

“She’s just a phenomenal player,” coach Matthew Mitchell said of Crooks.

The defeat wasn’t for a lack of effort, as Houston finished with 35 rebounds to Iowa State’s 38 and forced three more turnovers, winning that battle by a plus-3 margin. 

Fifteen of those rebounds belonged to senior guard TK Pitts, who finished with a career-high 15 boards, including six on the offensive glass.

“Yeah, we heard about that,” Crooks said on Pitts’ 15-rebound outing. “Like I said, amazing athletes. Houston plays at a pretty good pace, they were definitely trying to get up and down the floor today, so credit to them for that.”

Houston’s pace allowed it to get off to a 14-7 start, forcing four Cyclone turnovers in the process, but by the quarter’s end, Iowa State claimed a 17-14 lead behind a 10-0 run, and never looked back.

Williams’ facilitating made Houston’s attempts at addressing Crooks’ scoring even more challenging, as she tallied a career-high 14 assists, with numerous pinpoint feeds to Crooks in the paint.

“I think she’s probably one of the top portal additions in the country,” coach Bill Fennelly said. “We desperately needed a point guard, and what Jada gives us, we’ve never had a downhill presence at the point.”

Crooks’ extremely efficient 17 of 21 shooting performance was only blemished by an 0-for-4 stretch, which included a blocked layup attempt by junior guard Kierra Merchant.

Coming off of the lopsided 101-46 loss to West Virginia on Dec. 21, there were noticeable improvements that Mitchell acknowledged, and said he is beginning to see “some of our players rounding into better form, and that’s exciting to see, because that’s something we work extremely hard here, to help players get better.”

Houston will next make the trip north to Stillwater, Okla. to face Oklahoma State on Saturday, Jan. 3 at 3 p.m.