Colorado’s Upset Win vs. Iowa State Suddenly Makes the Buffaloes a Team to Watch

They contained the sport's most dominant force in decades, found 24 points from a bench player and pushed around one of the nation's burliest teams. But it was just another Wednesday for Colorado Buffaloes women's basketball.

Coach JR Payne's squad has never been kind to its houseguests, especially the elite. It notched the latest in a string of home upsets over the No. 19 Iowa State Cyclones, 68-62. It was a victory indicative of the program's past but invaluable for its future.

Colorado Shocks No. 19 Iowa State

Mar 24, 2024; Manhattan, Kansas, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach JR Payne yells at her team during the first quarter against the Kansas State Wildcats at Bramlage Coliseum. | Scott Sewell-Imagn Images

Coming off two straight losses, a Buffs win was unlikely but vital for their NCAA Tournament chances. They hung with Iowa State from wire to wire, holding the country's sixth-most efficient offense entering Wednesday to 39 percent shooting winning the rebound battle 46-33.

The Cyclones arrived in Boulder desperate for a win, having dropped in the rankings due to three straight Big 12 losses. After not losing a non-league game, conference foes created a blueprint to slow them down. To make matters worse, their second-leading scorer and top rebounder, Addy Brown, suffered an injury that kept her out of Wednesday's game.

Colorado took full advantage. Junior guard Desiree Wooten scored a season-high 24 from the bench, the first performance of 20-plus points by a Buff this season. She laced three 3-pointers and weaved through ISU's zone defense for consistent buckets.

The Buffaloes had been in every game they'd played this season but typically struggled late, with poor clutch offense costing them wins against Baylor and Oklahoma State. Wooten's brilliance helped Colorado through a tight battle until the fourth, but ultimately, to pull away by eight with 46 seconds left.

Iowa State center Audi Crooks (55) shoots the ball around Colorado forward Tabitha Betson (17) at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. | Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"We just came off two tough losses that came down to little things," Wooten said. "We executed all the little things in that fourth quarter stretch."

But while Wooten's success late wasn't a huge surprise, as she's the Buffs' leading scorer, unlikely heroes came up big. Sophomore forward Tabitha Betson, who re-joined the team midseason after leaving last summer, buried back-to-back 3s in the final minutes.

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On the other end, Colorado made Iowa State star Audi Crooks look more like a Camry. The center, averaging 28 points entering the game, scored a season-low of 17. The Buffaloes' swarming traps and Boulder's high altitude troubled her, with just 13 points until meaningless last-second layups.

She grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds, and her gravity allowed her teammates to put ISU ahead early through 3-point opportunities (42 percent), but the Buffs stood Crooks up and never allowed her signature dominance.

"Any coach would be so proud of [our] growth, from one weekend to the next weekend. These are all heavyweight fights, these are all battles," Payne said. "So many different people at different times of the game stepped up and made huge winning plays on both sides of the floor."

JR Payne's Giant Slayers

Jan 19, 2024; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach JR Payne during the second half against the UCLA Bruins at the CU Events Center. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Colorado's win over Iowa State was the program's 16th over an AP-ranked team since 2019. In the previous 17 seasons, the Buffs had just 13. Payne has transformed their culture to defense-first and team-centric since her hiring in 2016, one that can keep them in games with the nation's best.

"It's part of our culture. It's part of the coaches' culture. Every single year, they drill it into us," Betson said. "We can always fall back on the fact that defensively, we're gonna put our best foot forward."

That peaked just a few years ago, with three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances between 2022 and 2024. Colorado is now looking to get back to March Madness, sitting on a 12-6 record (3-3 Big 12). The Buffaloes' upset of Iowa State was their first over a Quad 1 team this season and first since beating No. 20 West Virginia and No. 10 Kansas State last January.