As the buzzer sounded in Hilton Coliseum for the final time in regular season for the ISU women’s basketball team, the scoreboard read Baylor 70, Iowa State 54. The result was not what the team had hoped for, but the smiles throughout Hilton showed the season is not yet over.

As the team’s three seniors were announced and gave their speeches, the thought that they might get one more game in Hilton as a host of the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament makes a loss to No. 9 Baylor sting a little less.

ISU coach Bill Fennelly spent time answering questions about the loss before turning his focus to the Big 12 tournament and saying there would be no looking back now.

“The regular season is over, we’re 20-9, we’re proud of what we did, and now the Big 12 tournament is a totally separate entity,” Fennelly said. “If it’s one game or three games, we’ll enjoy the experience.”

The Cyclones drew the No. 5 seed in the tournament and will face No. 4 seed Oklahoma State at 11:05 a.m. March 8 in Oklahoma City. Iowa State split the regular season series with Oklahoma State, each recording a win on the road.

The ISU squad will play the equivalent of a road game with the Oklahoma State’s campus only an hour from the Big 12 tournament host site in Oklahoma City — a travel time only longer than that for the Oklahoma Sooners. Iowa State will have the second farthest distance to travel, making the 580-mile trek March 6.

However, travel doesn’t seem to affect the Cyclones very much. The team finished with a better record on the road in Big 12 play (5-4) than in the friendly confines of Hilton Coliseum (4-5). Iowa State will have only two practices to prepare for the Cowgirls, but the team says they feel ready after their last meeting.

“It’s really fresh in our minds, knowing that we just played them,” said senior forward Hallie Christofferson. “[Just] like we did down there, just try to hit shots and rebound and see what happens.”

The Cowgirls are coming off a regular season where they finished 22-7 (11-7 Big 12) and head into the tournament ranked No. 18 in the AP Poll.

Fennelly said this tournament will be as tough as it’s ever been and has talked all season about the Big 12’s strength from top to bottom. Calling it the “best conference in the nation,” Fennelly is excited to see what the tournament brings.

“That’s what’s fun about this league: You’re in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament and you’re playing a top-20 team,” Fennelly said of Oklahoma State. “The ‘March Madness,’ the Big 12 tournament — it will be a great experience for our kids, and we are looking forward to going down there and playing.”