So often this season, Bill Fennelly has preached the importance of “the next 40 minutes” to his team.

But with just three regular season games left, the ISU women’s basketball coach knows that sooner, rather than later, there won’t be a next 40 minutes. Now the conversations have turned to “the ability to finish.”

“Anybody can start something. It takes no skill, no talent, no commitment to start something,” Fennelly says to his team. “Whether it’s good or bad, how do you finish? And do you finish with the mentality of no excuses, no regrets and wherever it takes you, that’s where you’re going.

“I think our team is understanding that.”

The three regular season games standing between the Cyclones (18-8, 7-8 Big 12) and the Big 12 Championships are road trips to Oklahoma State and Kansas, with a home date against Baylor to finish the season.

When Fennelly looked at the last five games to end the schedule — with a trip to Baylor and a home game against Texas already behind the team — he told his staff it may very well be the toughest stretch of games he’s seen in his 19-year career at Iowa State. But with that, he also sees opportunities for his team to pick up quality wins as it tries to earn its way into the NCAA tournament.

For senior forward Hallie Christofferson, who is facing the final three regular season games of her ISU career, finding a way to get wins to end the season comes down to doing “the little things” in practice. She isn’t trying to think about the “big picture” just yet.

“Right now I don’t really think about it at all. I kind of keep it in the back of my head, but I just try to play every game as well and as hard as I can,” Christofferson said. “I think on senior night it will really hit me, but right now I’m just trying to look at [Oklahoma] State.”

The Cowgirls, who handed the Cyclones their first loss of the season on Jan. 11, has been a team that has focused on chasing Iowa State off the 3-point line. In recent games, though, the Cyclones have found a way to attack the basket and find success in the paint while taking care of the basketball.

In Iowa State’s win against Texas on Saturday, the Cyclones committed just six turnovers much to the delight of Fennelly. While taking care of the ball leads to panicking in offensive sets, there are a couple other things Fennelly said having low turnover numbers can do for a team.

“Number one, obviously you’re getting more shots. Number two is it’s not a live-ball turnover where they steal the ball and go make layups,” Fennelly said. “We’ve talked a lot about it, worked very hard, tried to make them accountable for it and I think our kids have done a really good job.”

Another benefit lately is the ability to take some of the offensive pressure off of Christofferson. When guards like junior Nikki Moody or freshmen Jadda Buckley and Seanna Johnson have the ball, the ability to space the floor becomes easier to dribble drive or kick it out for an open shot.

Christofferson has seen the level of maturity from the team grow in that area a lot throughout the year.

“We realize to get baskets we have to keep the ball and it has to be important to us, and it is coming down the stretch,” Christofferson said. “You just have to have the urgency with the ball, but you can’t rush things. You just have to let things come to you, relax and play your offense.”