As the women’s basketball team turns the corner past the halfway point of the season heading into February, the team and ISU coach Bill Fennelly has left behind January’s mindset.

After two consecutive games on the road Iowa State is 1-1. A victory at West Virginia and an overtime loss against Kansas are what Iowa State left behind both mentally as well as on the calendar. 

“We talked to our team [and decided] when January was over, we flip the calendar. We get to February, and it was ironically the midpoint of the conference season,” Fennelly said. “This is when the special players, the special teams … find another gear.”

Fennelly said this was important if his team was going to be one of those “special teams,” to find “special players” now, while some teams are tired from the “rigors” of the conference season so far.

“Find another gear, find another level, find another way to commit even more to do things,” Fennelly said. “If you don’t do that on a nightly basis, bad things are going to happen.”

Just when statistics are showing one Cyclone playing her best game, another seems to highlight the page even more for the Cyclones (15-5, 6-4 Big 12).

Junior Hallie Christofferson has gained some spotlight attention with high numbers in points, rebounds and percentages in the past five games.

“We’re a team where the numbers show there’s a balance,” Fennelly said. “Hallie’s obviously having [the best game] overall. The numbers speak for themselves. But it’s kind of been one of those situations where someone has [largely] contributed on a given night.”

Christofferson has led Iowa State in free-throw shooting with 86 percent this year. In her most recent five games, she is a perfect 16-of-16 from the charity stripe.

Senior Anna Prins is approaching a career milestone of her own. Prins is sitting a mere seven points away from becoming only the 24th Cyclone to ever reach 1,000 points.

“To put your name on that list — that’s a pretty good list to be on,” Fennelly said. “And the people — that’s a who’s who of quality athletes at Iowa State. And if you’re on that list, I think that’s pretty good and it’ll be an exciting moment for her.”

Prins and company will travel to Texas Wednesday night for their third road game in just four games. 

“The more road wins we can get, the better,” Prins said. “Just trying to seal the deal with the [games] at home and trying to get those extra road wins always helps.”

Iowa State is nearly perfect at home, 12-1 with its only loss being to No. 1 Baylor. On the road, however, the Cyclones are 3-4. 

Prins said despite a nine-game losing streak, Texas has been playing well with back-to-back victories — both on the road and at home. 

Freshman Kidd Blaskowsky said even though this is only her first year at Iowa State, she’s learned a lot that will help propel her through the rest of the season.

“Having faith in your coaches and in your teammates is very important,” Blaskowsky said. “To know that when we’re out there playing, everybody has each others’ backs.”