On Saturday, the ISU women’s basketball team will travel to West Virginia for bout with its Big 12 competition. After dropping two back-to-back games against ranked opponents, Iowa State will finish the month on the road.

Closing out the month of January, the Cyclones will travel to Morgantown, W.Va., and to Lawrence, Kan. The mindset of capitalizing the end of a month on the road is something that doesn’t come easy for ISU coach Bill Fennelly.

“You have a portion of your schedule that, on paper appears to be harder,” Fennelly said. “And we’re in that stretch. And especially when you have a home game in the middle is Baylor, and you’re right back on the road for two more.”

Finishing the month of January playing away games isn’t something that comes new to the ISU squad, which is on a two-game skid. Last year, the team closed out January at Kansas State and at No. 12 Texas Tech.

To avoid a potential three-game losing streak, the Cyclones will prepare with a mindset Fennelly has harped into his players heads all season long, as well as his entire tenure at Iowa State.

“[We have to] play the ‘Iowa State way,'” said sophomore Brynn Williamson. “That is going to win games for us.”

Williamson said playing the “Iowa State way” isn’t something the team does to just win games and it doesn’t come easily explained.

“It’s not only playing hard, but it’s playing smart,” Williamson said. “It’s playing for each other and it’s playing for the front of the jersey. And when people ask, ‘What’s the Iowa State way?,’ the only thing I can say is it’s doing things the right way.”

Matching intensity and aggressiveness will play a part in the “Iowa State way”, Williamson said, when it comes down to Saturday night.

Freshman standout Kidd Blaskowski pitched in her view of the ‘Iowa State way’ as being something coming from within her teammates.

“Coach has been getting at us about playing the Iowa State way and embracing the processes,” Blaskowski said. “With that, we’ve had two losses in-a-row, but with the team we have and the chemistry we have we’re not going to sit back and let [that] affect us.”

Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. in Morgantown on Saturday. The Mountaineers hold a 1-0 record against the Cyclones, when they defeated them 64-53 dating back to 2010 at the Paradise Jam Tournament in the Virgin Islands.