Iowa State’s offense took to the floor to face off against Texas on Wednesday, but couldn’t land a punch against the team that has given it the most issues in conference play across the last two seasons.
The No. 6 Cyclones scored a season-low in their 73-48 loss to the Longhorns in Austin, dropping to 10-3 in Big 12 play.
“There’s a lot of things,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said on the Varsity Network. “There’s not a lot of screaming and hollering – it doesn’t do any good. I just told them we have to focus on the positives.”
As Fennelly admitted, there weren’t many.
The Cyclones were 17-42 from the field and made only four of the 12 3-pointers they attempted. Not to mention the 18 turnovers Iowa State committed.
“I don’t think we were shooting all of the shots we should have been shooting,” Iowa State point guard Emily Ryan said on the broadcast. “We’ve just got to keep shooting when we do get open and make more back-cuts to create that space. We definitely need to work on that for Saturday.”
It led to Texas making Iowa State look like a different team, which is becoming a trend in the series. Wednesday marked the Longhorns’ fifth-straight win against the Cyclones.
Despite the loss, Ashley Joens finished the night with 18 points, officially breaking the program’s all-time scoring record set by Angie Welle in 2002.
“When you break an all-time scoring record, it’s an amazing accomplishment,” Fennelly said. “I think it’s amazing to do that at Iowa State – where we’ve had so many great players come through.”
Iowa State will celebrate her accomplishment at the next home game on Saturday, but the competitor in Joens will turn her eyes to the contest quickly.
The team has things to fix, with how the game unraveled in the third quarter. Texas turned a five-point lead out of the half into 12 and dominated on defense. Iowa State scored just nine points in 10 minutes.
“The third quarter – we just couldn’t get anything accomplished,” Fennelly said. “You have to credit Texas (and their) physicality – we just can’t handle it yet.”
With five games left in the regular season, there’s no time for Iowa State to make a wholesale identity change, something else Fennelly noted post-game.
He’s basically giving them the choice: compete or fall behind.
“It’s really eerily simple, that’s what I told them,” Fennelly said on the Varsity Network. “We have to make a choice. We go home and we have to finish the last two weeks.”
The Cyclones have another matchup with a top 15 team when Oklahoma comes to Hilton Coliseum on Saturday.
Iowa State is tied with Baylor, currently, for the first-place spot in the conference standings and has a game remaining against the Bears in its home finale.
There’s a lot of time to get there, however, and a lot of games that will play out.
For now, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw put it simply.
“I think we leave the bad stuff here and take the good stuff with us,” she said. “I’m excited to face Oklahoma on Saturday.”