ISU women turning the page again

AMES — There are myriad ways to turn a season-long slog into a series of segments, moments or chunks.

Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly chooses to treat every game as a single chapter, which makes each season a plot twist-filled book.

So when the 11th-ranked Cyclones hit their first sustained patch of adversity less than two weeks ago with back-to-back blowout losses to No. 13 Texas and ninth-ranked Baylor, Fennelly hoped his team would confidently turn the page, grab a pen and start anew.

And that’s exactly what it did.

“It was a miserable week,” said Fennelly, whose team (18-3, 7-2 Big 12) faces No. 25 Kansas State (16-5, 6-3) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum. “I mean, (in) a lot of ways — on the court, off the court. And I said that's not just college basketball, that’s life. You have choices and their choice was to come back and work hard, play hard.”

And start winning again.

The Cyclones responded with convincing victories over Kansas and Texas Tech, and enter Wednesday’s matchup with the Wildcats tied with No. 18 Oklahoma atop the league standings.

“We had a couple bad chapters and you write the next one,” Fennelly said. “I think they’ve handled it really well. I think the leadership of our team is really good — and it’s a tribute to them that they stopped it when they did. When it comes again, hopefully we can stop it in a similar fashion.”

Wednesday’s chapter against Kansas State will feature several challenges.

The plot lines begin with the Wildcats’ 6-6 star post player Ayoka Lee, who scored an NCAA-record 61 points a week ago in a 94-65 rout of the Sooners.

But while she rightly grabs the headlines, it’s the players who surround her that help make Kansas State tough to beat.

“You don’t score 61 points unless someone throws you the ball,” Fennelly said. “She’s not playing point guard. She’s not Steph Curry. Someone’s got to the throw her the ball and I think they know what they do well. They space the floor very well.”

The Cyclones overcame a 38-point performance by Lee in the first meeting with the Wildcats to forge a 73-70 comeback win in Manhattan.

ISU trailed by 11 points with six minutes left, but drilled six 3-pointers down the stretch to close that chapter with a flourish.

“(Fennelly) has brought it up a few times, like, it can happen,” Cyclones forward Nyamer Diew said of how that game can be used for positive reinforcement. “We’re good enough. We could be on the other side or anything, but allowing us not to be on the other side and just trusting what we have in front of us will always help us.”

That’s the next chapter — which won’t be like any of the previous ones, good or bad. That’s what makes each segment of a season special. Preparation meets uncertainty until the ball goes up and the final horn blares.

“We’re approaching it the same way,” ISU point guard Emily Ryan said. “Just preparing the hardest we can in practices and outside of practice. Mentally getting prepared.”

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