In the first four minutes of Sunday’s game, the ISU women’s basketball team managed to peel straight out of the gates, scoring 10 points and holding West Virginia to zero.

For the last 16 minutes of the first half, the Cyclones (18-6, 9-5 Big 12) scored just 17 points and allowed the Mountaineers (15-10, 7-7) to come back from a 10-point deficit to cut the lead to five at halftime.

“We did get out to a good start and that is something we’ve been struggling with,” said junior Hallie Christofferson. “Once we get there, we can’t look back; we have to keep pushing forward. And if we make a mistake, just don’t dwell on it.”

It has been a told story for the Cyclones, who have come out swinging in the first portion of each half but seem to waiver in the minutes that follow.

Iowa State was outscored 7-2 in the final four minutes of the first half. West Virginia carried its momentum through the break and grabbed its first lead of the game.

With small surges throughout the second half — including a string of 3s made by sophomore Nikki Moody — the Mountaineers had an answer for everything.

“That’s just the way they play,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly. “They just keep coming at you in waves of bodies and we didn’t handle it as well as we should have.”

Fennelly said small basic things were responsible for how his team missed out on opportunities. The Mountaineers’ open shots were hard pills to swallow for Fennelly in his team’s 68-66 loss on Sunday.

Fennelly prided his defense at times during the year. On Sunday, it seemed that the ISU defense faltered at inopportune times.

What seemed to disrupt Iowa State’s quick start, and eventually the overall game plan, was West Virginia’s execution of the full-court press.

“It has a lot of effect — they keep bringing bodies at you and people get tired of handling the ball,” Fennelly said. “It probably affects your shooting a little bit.”

On the stat sheet, the press seemed to dismantle the Cyclones’ early 10-0 lead. After implementing the full-court pressure, the Cyclones began to get frazzled.

Looking back to the previous matchup between the two on Jan. 26 in Morgantown, W. Va., Moody said it was just a different situation all together.

“It was the same team, it was just a different game,” Moody said. “We panicked a lot more this game than we did before. We just need to slow down.”

Making valiant efforts to swing the game in their favor, the Cyclones were unable to throw the final punch. 

“Their defense took us out of some things,” Fennelly said. “When you lose a two-point game, you can sit here all day and analyze. But they made more plays.”