Twister Sisters Preview: Southern

The Twister Sisters were served a nice slice of Humble Pie in their second game of the season. The Drake Bulldogs proved too tough to tame for the Cyclones who fell 85-73, primarily due to their second quarter struggle, scoring just 4 points. Hopefully those errors can be corrected today as they return home to take on the Southern Jaguars who sit at 0-4 on the year.

The Jags started the year with 4-straight road games, half of which came against Iowa State’s conference rivals Baylor and Texas. Games Southern lost by a combined score of 165-88. They have improved over the course of their last 3 games, including just a 4-point loss to Miami just a few days ago, a game where the Jags led heading to the 4th and got within one with 90 seconds to go. Led by a trio of guards (Sirviva Legions, Soniyah Reed, and Aleighya Fontenot) who scored 34 of the teams’ 57 points in the narrow defeat, Southern looks to build on the momentum gained in their trip to Ames.

As for the Cyclones, games to this point in the year have been few and far between. This will be just their 3rd game over the first two weeks of the season. Sitting at 1-1 isn’t necessarily where this team “wants” to be, but like I had mentioned for the Drake game, that’s a tough road game for a young and inexperienced team to try and tackle this early into the season. The best news for the Cyclones may have been that Audi Crooks showed out, scoring 23 points on 7/9 shooting and 9/12 from the free throw line. She’s had some issues on the defensive end, but as the season progresses, I think the defense will come. The more experience early on for the freshmen, the better.

Possibly the biggest surprise though, were the struggles from Nyamer Diew. The only returning player and only experienced player in the system really struggled, shooting just 4 of 12 from the floor and just 1 of 5 from deep. She was also fairly quiet on the glass, securing just 4 rebounds. Look for her to bounce back in a big way against a Southern team that has been outrebounded by 53 to start their year. I like Iowa State’s physicality in this one to take over the game and get them back to their winning ways before heading off to Las Vegas.

The game will tip off at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+ at Hilton Coliseum.