ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly delivered a message to his team before Sunday’s practice.

Iowa State talked about a lot of things before it took the practice floor a day after its road loss to Kansas State, but one thing the team did do was write on the board in the locker room. Each member of the team had to write on the board what they would do to impact the team.

Junior Brynn Williamson wrote: “Help my teammates do what they do best.” Sophomore Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky wrote: “Stay positive on and off the court and bring energy off the bench.”

Blaskowsky noticed in practice that the writing exercise meant something when the team got to the court.

“Everybody had an edge, everybody wanted to be there, [and] everybody was engaged,” Blaskowsky said. “I think things like that are what brings teams together. Having three losses is a way to define ourselves and our character and we’re going to stick together, trust our coaches and we’ll come back.”

With Kansas State leading by as many as 16 points with 4:15 to go in the game, Iowa State clawed back into the game and cut the Wildcats’ lead to three points with 33 seconds left after a 3-pointer by Seanna Johnson. Kansas State ended the hopes of the comeback at the free-throw line, going 13-of-18 in the last 2:06 of the game.

Fennelly didn’t see any quit from his team in the loss though, even at the team’s lowest point and the team shooting just 19.4 percent in the first half against the Wildcats.

“If you’re coaching effort at this time of year, there’s a lot of issues,” Fennelly said. “I think for the first time defensively, our lack of offense kind of crept into our inability to guard. At the end the game, we competed until the very end.”

Shooting woes have plagued the Cyclones in their last three games. Iowa State shot 33.9 percent against Kansas State, but against Oklahoma State, the Cyclones shot 36.7 percent and 17.6 percent from 3-point range.

Against West Virginia, Iowa State was 41.5 percent from the field, but just 10 percent (2-of-20) from 3-point range.

Williamson said the lack of effort hasn’t been to blame in the downward shooting trend, but the team knows that getting into the gym and getting shots up is going to be critical at this point in the season.

“[Assistant] coach [Jodi] Steyer is putting us through shooting drills in practice and things like that,” Williamson said. “I think it really just starts with everyone coming together and saying, “This is unacceptable.” All of these teams are shooting these ridiculous numbers and ours’ are slowly going down so it’s [a matter of] who’s putting up those extra shots.”

The Cyclones will turn their attention back to Oklahoma after Iowa State defeated the Sooners in overtime on Jan. 5. OU guard Morgan Hook poured in 26 points in 45 minutes of action.

She will once again receive the attention of ISU defenders, along with Aaryn Ellenberg, in the teams’ second matchup in 16 days.

“She seems to get really excited when she sees an Iowa State uniform,” Fennelly said of Hook. “I love the way she plays; so we’ve got to do a better job there. It was probably the only game of the year where we turned the ball over and it turned into layups.”

Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 21 at Hilton Coliseum.