On Iowa State’s day off Jan. 22, Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky got into the gym.

Amid the Cyclones’ recent shooting struggles, Blaskowsky tried to make her work in the ISU practice facility more like a game. She shot 3-pointers from six spots on the court.

If she missed more than five shots at one of those spots, she made herself run up and down the court.

“I think at a couple spots I had to run, but it’s always good just to push yourself and motivate yourself,” Blaskowsky said.

Iowa State is heading into its second meeting of the season with Texas Tech on Jan. 25. The Lady Raiders remain winless in conference play, and were also the last win the Cyclones experienced, which was Jan. 8.

ISU coach Bill Fennelly has taken notice of Texas Tech’s depth the second time around; each player is capable of making a significant impact on the game.

“I think they’re like a lot of teams when you have a new coach and a new program. You’re rewarding people for effort and execution,” Fennelly said. “They’re playing 10 guys every game, so it’s a matter to trying to guess who they’re going to play one night to the next.”

Junior guard Amber Battle leads the way for Texas Tech and put up 19 of the 51 Texas Tech points Jan. 22 in a loss to West Virginia. The closest Lady Raider to Battle in scoring was Jasmine Caston with nine points.

Last time against the Cyclones, Battle was held to only eight points. Fennelly attributed the success in defending her to a team-oriented approach as opposed to an individual matchup.

“I think the biggest thing when you play a really good scorer is make them a volume shooter,” Fennelly said. “Don’t look at the number of points they get, but the number of shots it took them to get it, and do you commit silly fouls.”

Fennelly has seen his team commit more “silly” fouls than normal during its four-game skid. In practice, Fennelly has been stressing the importance of good defense leading to more opportunities on offense. 

“It’s more about having mental toughness and not feeling sorry for yourself when things aren’t going well on offense, because when we do, it does affect our defense,” said junior guard Nikki Moody. “But when we get into a defensive mentality, we’ll be just fine.”

More than anything else during the recent losses, Fennelly hasn’t detected a drop in effort in his players, and the players say they feel the same sense of unity as when they started the season with 14 straight wins.

“We’re in a bind right now, obviously, but we’re going to keep pushing and keep putting in the work,” Blaskowsky said. “It’s a team effort, and I think everybody on this team has that mindset that they want to win. We’re going to get back on top and we’re going to win some games.”

Iowa State is scheduled to take on Texas Tech at 7 p.m. Saturday in Lubbock, Texas.