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The intra-state showdown between Iowa and Iowa State, featuring Ava Heiden going up against the nation’s leading scorer Audi Crooks, was one of the most anticipated showdowns of the season. The No. 11 and No. 12 teams in the country were set to clash at Hilton Coliseum, and the game absolutely delivered. Iowa State ended up winning the game 74–69 behind Audi Crooks’ 30-point performance, handing coach Jan Jensen her first loss of the season. (This is a developing news…) 

Audi Crooks stays red-hot as Iowa State hands Jan Jensen and her Iowa Hawkeyes their first loss of the season.

Akash Das is an NCAA and WNBA Writer at EssentiallySports, where his bylines dive deep into the structural side of basketball. With a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication and a Master’s in Sports Business &amp; Management from the University of Liverpool, he grounds every feature in strong reporting fundamentals and academic rigor. His coverage tracks how coaching blueprints, roster construction, and roster moves, from the NCAA transfer portal to WNBA free agency, shape outcomes on the court.  

His sharp breakdowns at the WNBA desk earned him a spot in the outlet’s prestigious Journalistic Excellence Program, putting him among ES’ most trusted voices on basketball. Beyond box scores, Akash is driven by the bigger picture: how programs are built, maintained, and rebuilt in the NCAA pipeline, and how those systems intersect with the professional game.  

With experience across sports writing, research, and media strategy, he brings nuance to topics often overlooked in day-to-day highlights coverage. Whether examining the long-term vision behind a college program or the ripple effect of player mobility in the WNBA, Akash connects fans to the tactical and structural heart of the sport.

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Akash Das

Audi Crooks Leads Iowa State to Hand Jan Jensen’s Iowa First Loss of Season

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Audi Crooks Leads Iowa State to Hand Jan Jensen's Iowa First Loss of Season

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Audi Crooks Leads Iowa State to Hand Jan Jensen&#8217;s Iowa First Loss of Season

Audi Crooks Leads Iowa State to Hand Jan Jensen's Iowa First Loss of Season - EssentiallySports

EssentiallySports is the home for the underserved fan, delivering storytelling that goes beyond the headlines. As a media platform, we combine deep audience insights with cultural trends, to meet fandom where it lives and where it goes next. Founded in 2014, EssentiallySports now engages with an audience of over 30m+ American sports fan on its website and 1m+ readers on its newsletters daily.

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Akash Das is an NCAA and WNBA Writer at EssentiallySports, where his bylines dive deep into the structural side of basketball. With a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication and a Master’s in Sports Business &amp; Management from the University of Liverpool, he grounds every feature in strong reporting fundamentals and academic rigor. His coverage tracks how coaching blueprints, roster construction, and roster moves, from the NCAA transfer portal to WNBA free agency, shape outcomes on the court. His sharp breakdowns at the WNBA desk earned him a spot in the outlet’s prestigious Journalistic Excellence Program, putting him among ES’ most trusted voices on basketball. Beyond box scores, Akash is driven by the bigger picture: how programs are built, maintained, and rebuilt in the NCAA pipeline, and how those systems intersect with the professional game. With experience across sports writing, research, and media strategy, he brings nuance to topics often overlooked in day-to-day highlights coverage. Whether examining the long-term vision behind a college program or the ripple effect of player mobility in the WNBA, Akash connects fans to the tactical and structural heart of the sport.