ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly saw a quiet team in the ISU locker room Saturday night.

The Cyclones (14-1) had lost their first game of the season — a home contest to Oklahoma State — and felt they hadn’t given their best effort. One thing did stick in Fennelly’s mind, though.

“It’s a pretty resilient group,” Fennelly said. “Players bounce back a lot easier than coaches do and maybe the fans do.”

Iowa State will return to Hilton Coliseum on Wednesday to host a physically sound West Virginia team. The Mountaineers beat the Cyclones at Hilton last season by two points, and have collected two Big 12 road wins so far this season.

Junior guard Nikki Moody is prepared for West Virginia’s physical brand of defense.

“They’re an aggressive team,” Moody said. “They play great defense and I think that’s one of the things we have to focus on with our turnovers is they jump out in passing lanes and they go for every steal, so we’ve got to watch that.”

The best way to expose that aggressiveness, Moody said, is to run backcuts and handoffs on offense to keep the defense honest. West Virginia’s rebounding ability also poses a threat to the Cyclones.

The Mountaineers grabbed 22 offensive rebounds and 23 defensive rebounds in an overtime win against Texas on Sunday in Morgantown, W.Va. Iowa State has had an even or positive rebounding margin in 14 of 15 games this season, but when going up against a taller team whose identity is crashing the glass, one intangible must be present for the Cyclones.

“You’ve got to want it more,” Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky said about rebounding against West Virginia. “Playing in this conference, it’s not going to come easy. You’ve got to realize what has to be done and what needs to be done as a player.

“I think with the heart a lot of us have for each other and for this team with the want to win, will definitely play a factor in helping us.”

Even though Iowa State’s unbeaten streak came to an end Saturday against Oklahoma State, the team realizes all of its goals can still be reached, even if the players and coaches don’t talk about it.

Fennelly told the team that failure is sometimes a part of the equation in sports, but it’s how the players respond in the next opportunity that can show the character of the team.

“That’s life, there’s always someone that’s better,” Fennelly said. “If you just defer, there’s a difference between losing a game and just allowing yourself to not be involved in the game or deflecting or allowing other people to do it to you. There’s no question it’s different.”

Tipoff between the Cyclones and Mountaineers is set for 7 p.m. tonight at Hilton Coliseum.