AMES -- Audi Crooks eyed the post and saw one defender.
It stayed that way for a while -- much to her delight.
"I was very surprised," Iowa State's star post player said. "It was a welcome surprise, don't get me wrong."
The 6-3 sophomore took full advantage of her double-team free first quarter Wednesday against Kansas, scoring 16 of the Cyclones' first 19 points en route to a 33-point performance that helped her team pull away for a 78-64 win at Hilton Coliseum.
Crooks shot 13 of 18 from the field and ISU (10-5, 1-1) sank 54.9 percent of its collective field goal attempts to decisively win its home opener before a New Year's Day crowd of 10,807.
"When you put together game plans in this league, you can't guard everything," Cyclones head coach Bill Fennelly said. "And obviously they initially thought, let's guard Audi one-on-one. That's two (points). It's not three. And then after a while you're like, 'OK, do you adjust?'"
The Jayhawks (10-3, 0-2) did just that, sending double teams that shut Crooks out in the second quarter, but couldn't keep her at bay while she scored 17 points in the second half.
ISU never trailed, but led by just five points, at 50-45, with 4:46 left in the third quarter. The Cyclones then responded with a 12-3 run that spilled into the fourth quarter to help create their double-digit cushion.
"I think we just needed to stop giving them the ball, to be honest," Crooks said of ISU's strong final 15 minutes. "We were giving them a lot of really easy points, easy possessions, second chances -- those are things that have killed us in games' prior, and obviously that can't happen. So honestly, at halftime, we just decided that those things can't continue."
And they didn't. The Cyclones held Kansas to 38.9 percent shooting overall and a dismal 3-for-17 mark (17.6 percent) from the 3-point line. Star point guard S'Mya Nichols led the Jayhawks with 22 points, but shot just 6-for-16 from the field.
"Iowa State's a great preparation team," Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider said. "They do a great job of making you try to score in ways you're not accustomed to."
Emily Ryan added a season-high 19 points, and Addy Brown chipped in 10 points and 11 rebounds as ISU outscored the Jayhawks, 42-31, in a foul call-filled second half.
Ryan went 7-for-8 from the field and drilled her only 3-point attempt in just over 24 minutes of court time. The senior also doled out six assists to pad her school record in that area -- and played one of the most efficient games in her storied career.
"When (Crooks) does her job so well, it makes everyone else's life so easy, as well," Ryan said. "Not only does her performance impact her numbers on the stat sheet, it impacts everyone on the team. It's just a big difference when she's on the court doing her job. She just impacts so much that doesn't even go on the stats sheet, and it's really special that I get to play with her."
One area on the stat sheet Crooks and some of her. Teammates must get better in is free throw shooting. She went 7-for-13 from the line and the Cyclones ended up 17 of 29 overall from 15 feet out. Fennelly said his team shot perhaps as many free throws as it ever has in the days leading up to the home opener, so he might adopt a different tack to coax improvement out of his team in that regard.
"Maybe the next time it's like, don't even talk about it, don't shoot one," Fennelly said semi-jokingly. But we have to be better, no question."