Whether it’s shots not going in or players passing up looks at the basket, Iowa State has not sustained a rhythm on offense for the fourth consecutive game.

The Cyclones fell to Oklahoma Jan. 21 and were once again plagued by issues on offense, and lost at home for the third-straight game. ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly sees the missed shots leading to too much pressure put on his team on defense without much depth on the roster.

“We chart the shots,” Fennelly said. “We were 2-for-15 at halftime and 13 of the 15 were almost completely uncontested. I guess they could be more open, they’re in the gym by themselves I guess. We’re a team that’s got to make shots [and] take care of the ball a little bit better.”

Iowa State shot 31.5 percent from the floor in the loss to the Sooners, and just 15.4 percent (4-of-26) from 3-point range. While the ball never found the bottom of the net with much consistency to begin with, players felt looks were passed up, too.

Junior guard Nikki Moody saw a lot of looks not shot by her team on the offensive end of the floor, and the way to correct something like that, she said, is to give each other more confidence at practice and during the game.

“I feel like some people that should have shot, shots that they’re comfortable shooting, even if they’re not comfortable shooting but can shoot it, sometimes hesitate and doubt themselves,” Moody said. “I think we have to get rid of that doubt we have in ourselves and just shoot the ball because you can’t make it if you don’t shoot it.”

As far as looking at playing more offensively inside the 3-point line, Fennelly knows that is not what his team identity is at this point in the season and that some of the struggles on offense come from near the basket, too.

“We’re missing a lot of layups and we have the kids that we have,” Fennelly said. “I think Seanna [Johnson] and Nikki, an early 3 in the shot clock is probably not a great shot for them, I think for the other ones that’s who they are, that’s who [Nicole] “Kidd” [Blaskowsky] and Brynn [Williamson] are. … Offensively we’re struggling to find multiple pieces. That’s our team and we’ve just got to figure out a way to do it better.”

In Iowa State’s win in Norman, Okla., Jan. 5, the Cyclones shot 46.3 percent from the field against the Sooners as well as 40.6 percent (13-of-32) from 3-point range.

OU coach Sherri Coale said the game plan coming into the Jan. 21 game was to put even more of an emphasis on chasing Iowa State off the perimeter and to stop Jadda Buckley on offense, who had 29 points in the game on Jan. 5. That night, she had 0 points on two shot attempts.

“Across the board, our coverage was pretty much according to plan,” Coale said. “They missed some, they’re not shooting well right now, but that will come around. I’m glad we’re done with them because that will come around and they’ll start making them again.”