Addy Brown’s 41 eliminates ASU from Big 12 Championship

(Photo credit: Maya Diaz/WCSN)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Halfway through the first quarter of Arizona State women’s basketball’s second-round matchup in the 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship against Iowa State graduate center Nevaeh Parkinson found herself on the wrong side of a mismatch, guarding Iowa State sophomore forward Addy Brown.

Brown – who already had seven points and had just made a three over 6-foot-7 junior forward Kennedy Basham at the top of the line – had Parkinson defending her on the right wing of the 3-point line, making Parkinson a fish out of water on the perimeter and allowing Brown to take advantage. After faking two steps, she had the space she needed to fire off a three, sinking it through the net, and giving Iowa State the lead. The Sun Devils fought hard the rest of the evening, but the momentum Brown gave the Cyclones carried the team to victory.

It didn’t matter who Arizona State (10-22, 3-15 Big 12) had guarding Brown. She scored with efficiency and utilized all three levels to score a career-high 41 points – the most in a Big 12 Tournament preliminary round game – and led Iowa State (21-10, 12-6) to a 96-88 victory over the Sun Devils on Thursday inside the T-Mobile Center.

“We had (senior forward) Hanna (Miller) guard (Brown), we had (junior guard Jalyn Brown) guard her, we had (senior forward) Heavenly Greer guard her, we had Kennedy Basham guard her, take your pick,” Arizona State head coach Natasha Adair said. “I will give her her just due, she had a heck of a game. At this level, there are elite players on the floor. … I’m never going to shy away from a player who had a phenomenal night.”

Addy Brown’s 13 points in the first quarter, including three 3-pointers, set the tone for the rest of the night offensively for Iowa State. The Cyclones just narrowly missed the century mark in points and did it efficiently, shooting 47% from the field.

As the night went on, Arizona State was able to slow down the Iowa State offense. The Sun Devils limited the Cyclones to just three more 3-pointers after their six in the first quarter. They matched Iowa State offensively in the second and third quarters before outscoring the Cyclones 29-23 in the fourth. It was just a case of the Sun Devils being too little too late after falling behind 28-17 after the first quarter.

“Anytime you are on defense and flying around, and you close out and depending on three seconds left on the clock, it lets the air out of the room,” Adair said. “But this time of year, it’s next play, we made adjustments. So when I look at (Addy Brown’s first quarter), that happened, but then you look at the second quarter, the third quarter, the fourth quarter, you can’t spot any team, especially (Iowa State head coach) Bill Fennelly, (he) does a phenomenal job.”

After posting a 50-40 shooting split as a team for the first time on Wednesday, Arizona State did it again on Thursday. The Sun Devils shot 52% from the field and 48% from beyond the arc on 25 attempts. Graduate guard Tyi Skinner scored 23 points on 66.6% from the field and broke the ASU single-season 3-point record, hitting four to break her tie with guard Katie Hempen’s 2014-15 season, finishing the year with 80.

Jalyn Brown also had an offensive night to be proud of despite the loss. She scored 26 points on 44.4% from the field and went 4-for-6 from beyond the arc after starting the first quarter 2-for-6 from the field and 0-for-1 from three.

“Shooters gonna keep shooting,” Brown said. “Basketball, it’s a bunch of highs and lows, but if I had clocked out of the game early because I missed a couple of shots, we wouldn’t have been as close as we were to winning.”

The Sun Devils were able to match the Cyclones in nearly all categories after the first quarter with one notable exception. Arizona State committed 30 personal fouls, sending Iowa State to the free-throw line 40 times, where it converted at an 83% clip.

ASU’s 30 personal fouls were 12 more than Iowa State’s 18, creating a difficult environment on the court for the Sun Devils. Players had to be extremely careful on defense to try and stop the referees from going to their whistles, but in the end, Skinner, Parkinson and Basham all fouled out by the end of the game.

“I know no basketball player wants the refs to get too involved,” Skinner said. “You want to leave it up to the players. So (we were) just playing against that. It’s my first time out of the five years being in college (that I fouled out). … It’s hard to play when the refs are so much involved in every possession, every play.”

Even with the large discrepancy in free throws between the two teams, Arizona State never gave up the fight, battling until the end, something that’s been a theme for Adair’s team. Still, the loss wrapped up a third straight disappointing year for her at the helm of the program.

Arizona State’s performances in its two Big 12 championship games showed the world what kind of team the Sun Devils can be when they play their best. Jalyn Brown is an offensive player that the Sun Devils can build around, and if Skinner utilizes her last year of eligibility, ASU could take a step forward in its second year in the Big 12 behind its offensive duo.

Arizona State has a long way to go to climb ahead of some of the teams in front of it, but the team showed heart in its loss and battled through to the final buzzer.

“We talked about finishing on empty, and I thought our group did,” Adair said. “We talked about controlling the controllables, and we left everything on the floor. I mean, it was a two, three-possession game, and I just thought every player that touched the floor showed up today.”

The months leading up to the start of the 2025-26 season will be filled with uncertainty for Arizona State as the transfer portal opens and questions surround the team’s management. Next year’s team will want to avoid many of the mistakes that have plagued the program over the last few years, but one thing they won’t want to change is the heart that this year’s team played with.