Last week after Iowa State’s win against Texas Tech, ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly put the economics degree he earned at William Penn University to use.

Fennelly related the law of diminishing returns to his team, who is now 14-1.

“And you can invest, and invest and invest and at some point, productivity drops off,” Fennelly said. “The question is we’re kind of like right here and I’m afraid when we drop off, we’ll drop like that. So we’re trying to inch that thing up the hill.”

After suffering its first loss of the season Saturday in a home game against Oklahoma State, No. 13 Iowa State experienced its first “off-day” since Dec. 26. Fennelly felt his team almost “running on fumes” in the final stretch leading into Sunday’s day off, and that even a day break can be beneficial.

“It’s only one day, but sometimes that makes a difference and I think that day leading back into going back on campus, start of school, doing things that are more normal now hopefully will help,” Fennelly said.

Since the team spent the holidays in Ames due to games and practices, players didn’t get much of a chance to have time for themselves. It didn’t just give the players a time to reflect on themselves, but on where they are as a basketball team.

Junior guard Nikki Moody didn’t put time in on the court Sunday, but she did reflect on the mental aspect of the game, and how the Cyclones’ offense can improve in late-game situations in the Big 12.

She focused specifically on situations when senior forward Hallie Christofferson is not on the floor late in the game and how the ball must keep moving in order to have success.

“Whether she’s on or off the court, we sometimes get stuck when we pass the ball to a certain spot and just stand there and don’t keep the motion going,” Moody said. “I think once we get in the flow of just keep moving and keep cutting, keep passing and keep screening, then we’ll be a lot better and more efficient.”

Sophomore guard Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky didn’t think about basketball much at all on her day off. Sunday was a time to reflect as a person — and get her watch fixed — coming off the team’s first loss of the season.

Although Blaskowsky knows the team is certainly upset with dropping its first game of the year, she and her teammates are keeping it in perspective and are looking towards the opportunity Wednesday against West Virginia.

“At the same time it’s motivating to know that we’re all in this together,” Blaskowsky. “We’re going to lose as a team, we’re going to win as a team and I think everybody’s at that mindset now that we’re hungry for a win.”