One month, one focus — that’s the motto the ISU women’s basketball team has had in February.

So far so good. 

When ISU coach Bill Fennelly made the commitment to February, even he admitted he didn’t think his team would be playing this well.

“I can’t say I would’ve expected us to be here,” he said. “I’m very proud of our players and my staff. I think every basketball player, every basketball coach, every basketball fan wants to be talking about big games in February and March.

“We’re in that position, and I think that’s attributed to the committment of our players and my assistants on a daily basis.”

Sophomore forward Hallie Christofferson believes the theme has helped the Cyclones come together as a team. 

“For the month of February, we knew we had a bunch of home games and that it was beneficial for us and we knew that we could win these home games,” Christofferson said. “It’s one focus on the fact that the fans are going to help us, we’re going to help ourselves as a team. We’re going to come together and try to get as many wins as possible here in the month of February.”

In February, the Cyclones have won five of six games. During that stretch, the 3-point shot has been their best friend, as they’ve hit 43 of them. More recently, in the last three wins, Iowa State has shot 45 percent from behind the arc. 

Another area where the Cyclones have excelled is in their guard play. In the last five games, they’ve had three players finish with 11 assists. 

One of those players is freshman guard Nikki Moody, who now holds the record for assists as a freshman at Iowa State with 111 after passing Lyndsey Medders’ record of 108. 

Lauren Mansfield and Chassidy Cole are the other two who have had 11 assists, and Fennelly has specifically been pleased with this as of late. 

“Our senior guards have played really, really well lately, and it’s been well-documented that I haven’t been overly pleased at times with the way they’ve played and the way they’ve led this year,” Fennelly said.

He went on to say how he met with the two seniors and discussed the importance of being a senior at Iowa State.

“I brought [Mansfield and Cole] in under no uncertain terms what I expected and that if you’re a senior at Iowa State you need to leave a piece of you behind,” Fennelly said.

Now Iowa State faces Missouri, who is at the bottom of the Big 12 sitting at 11-14 and 1-13 in conference play, Tuesday at Hilton Coliseum. 

Last time they faced off in Columbia, the Cyclones were able to win by double digits at 65-52. Mansfield led with 21 points and eight rebounds, and Iowa State also outscored Missouri from the free-throw line 18-3. 

Despite the Tigers being in the cellar of the Big 12, Fennelly said they are better than their record. Missouri lost to Oklahoma by four, Texas A&M by four and also beat a Kansas team that sits in the top half of the conference. 

“You look at the way they’ve played, all year really besides a few exceptions, they’ve been in every game,” Fennelly said. “When we played them last time, they outscored us in the second half, so they’ve been in the game.”

Tip off at Hilton Coliseum is set for 7 p.m.