AMES, Iowa – For the first time this season, an Iowa State basketball team was defeated at Hilton Coliseum.
Iowa State was downed by Baylor, Saturday night, suffering a 76-70 defeat in their sixth loss of the season.
“Disappointed in the outcome,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said after the game. “We got beat by a better team. It’s a make shot-miss shot game… credit to them. It was a tough week for our team, but we’ll see how we respond and move forward.”
If there was anything positive to take away from the game, Nyamer Diew might have had all of it.
The junior erupted for a career high with 25 points in the game, including some electrifying and-1’s that brought the crowd to its feet.
She looked all of the part of the player the Iowa State staff was looking to get out of her when she transferred from Butler.
“You take Ny out of there and we couldn’t make anything,” Fennelly said.
Diew finished with a 3-4 mark from the 3-point line and 10-13 overall. Without her, the Cyclones shot 18-53 from the field and just 2-20 from the 3-point line.
“We were trying a little bit of everything,” Fennelly said. “We were trying to get to the free throw line. We were making some two’s and trying to be more aggressive getting to the rim. We just couldn’t get to the line and we’d kick it (out)… that’s the game.”
The loss makes Iowa State 15-6 on the season, with a 7-4 mark through 11 games in Big 12 play.
With Texas winning on the road at Kansas, the Cyclones will be two games out of the lead in the standings with seven remaining in the season.
Iowa State will have some extra time to take in this loss, with its next game not coming until Saturday night in Morgantown.
Some will look at that aspect as an opportunity, especially an experienced coach like Fennelly, with an experienced group on the floor.
“I love our team,” Fennelly said. “I wouldn’t trade any of them for anyone – the way they represent Iowa State, the way they compete, the way they show up every day, the respect they have for one another. I have no idea how many games we’re going to win the rest of the way – maybe none, I don’t know – but we’re going to show up. We’re going to play hard. We’re going to do what we need to do. I’m not worried about that at all.”
Although, as Fennelly said, this is the month where the stakes get higher, monumentally.
“When you get to February, the execution has to go with effort,” Fennelly said. “Our effort’s good. Our execution has to get better, and that starts with me and the stuff that I do.”
One of the keys Fennelly mentioned is finding more minutes for its players coming off of the bench, whether they’re producing or not.
The Cyclones played only seven players in Saturday’s game with all five of its starters finishing with over 30 minutes of court time, including the main trio all playing over 39.
There are six days in between Saturday and Iowa State’s next game.
With time to analyze and high stakes seven-game stretch, there’s plenty left to play for. Only time will tell how Iowa State attacks it.
