The Iowa State women’s basketball team’s first game of the Elevance Health Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off offered the Cyclones an early-season opportunity to take down one of the best teams in the country.

The 15th-ranked Iowa State women had no answer for defending national champion South Carolina on Thanksgiving Thursday, falling 76-36. Behind a 32-0 run in the

Dawn Staley’s No. 4 squad came out Thursday and simply smothered No. 15 Iowa State, burying the Cyclones early in a 76-36 victory to start the women’s portion of the Fort Myers Tip-off. The Gamecocks were coming off their first loss in 19 months.