It was a slightly different story and a different venue for the Cyclones on Wednesday night, but a similar outcome. Unable to establish an offense in the first half, the Cyclones could not recover from an early deficit.

In a 66-51 defeat, the Cyclones (13-4, 4-3 Big 12) hung with the No. 1 team in the country for the first few minutes of the game. What looked like a promising game quickly went south.

As sound as the Lady Bears (17-1, 7-0 Big 12) were on offense, the threat didn’t come from superstar Brittney Griner’s offensive abilities alone.

“When any team gets away, it’s hard to catch back up,” said forward Brynn Williamson. “If you took away certain things Baylor did well, the game would be completely different. The little things we don’t usually do, that we did tonight, probably cost us the game.”

Baylor’s impenetrable defense held Iowa State to just 36 percent from the floor, significantly lower than the season’s average of 42 percent. 

However, the Cyclones went point for point with the Lady Bears in the second half, scoring 35 points a piece.  But a 25-point deficit in the first half was too much for Iowa State to recover from.

The Lady Bears did everything to make the Cyclones pay. But with just five turnovers in the second half, Iowa State was able to make up a chunk of their early deficit.

Baylor’s Griner led the Lady Bears to an early lead, coming out of the game with seven minutes left with 22 points and eight rebounds.

Less than pleased with her performance, Griner said nonetheless her team pulled through in then end.

“Missing easy shots [and] not finishing strong,” Griner said about her disappointment. “I feel like I didn’t do what I had to do to help out my team.”

Even though the Lady Bears secured a 15-point victory, head coach Kim Mulkey said the last four minutes were tough to watch.

“The disappointing thing about my team tonight was the last three minutes and 50 seconds,” said Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey. “It was a 26-point game and it’s going to look like a 15-point game when I cleared my bench.”

From here, the Cyclones will finish out the month of January with a couple of road games. 

“Coach said our focus needs to be January right now,” Prins said. “And it’s almost over, but we have two huge games to finish out [the month].”