The term “moral victory’ gets used often in sports when a team that isn’t supposed to win comes close, but doesn’t quite get the job done.

For the ISU men’s basketball team, that term is specifically shot down as a possible explanation for two losses to top 10 teams last week. Going from then-No. 9 Missouri and then-No. 10 Kansas to a struggling Oklahoma State squad on Wednesday, the team knows that no matter who the opponent, a complete effort is necessary to win.

“I think the biggest thing we should’ve learned is that it’s not enough to just play hard,” said guard Scott Christopherson. “You have to execute, you have to take care of the ball. It’s consistency that kept us from winning those two games.

“It’s great that I think we showed we’re capable of playing with [Missouri and Kansas]. But at the same time, moral victories — we’re not in seventh-grade basketball anymore, so who cares.”

Close losses, like the ones the Cyclones (12-5, 2-2 Big 12) had in their last two contests, can show a team what it’s capable of — as Christopherson said — but they can also cause complacency.

Associate coach T.J. Otzelberger said in a news conference Monday that he hopes the players aren’t resting on the laurels of those “moral victories” and are focusing on what it takes to get those wins in close games.

“There’s no such thing as moral victories,” Otzelberger said. “The Big 12 is as good of league as there is in this country, and there’s a big difference between losing games you’re in and finding a way to win. So I would hope we come out Wednesday [against Oklahoma State] and look at this game as a must-win.”

As the hype machine — that’s been rolling for this group since they stepped on campus — gets Iowa State to play nationally, the team has adopted a “single-game season” mentality, that the next game is the most important, regardless of anything else.

Oklahoma State (9-8, 2-2) is that next opponent. Otzelberger said the team will focus on guard Keiton Page, who hit a late 3-pointer last year in Stillwater, Okla., that ended the Cyclones’ hopes of winning on the road.

“[Page is] one of those guys that he can get it going at any point in time,” Otzelberger said. “He’s the type of player that can miss three or four and then come back and make his next couple, so you’ve always got to be aware of him.”

Christopherson said the Cowboys are a “good defensive team” and that he and his team will “have our work cut out for us.”

The biggest reason, Christopherson said, a win against Oklahoma State won’t come easy is that those “moral victories” are worthless.

“Oklahoma State does not care that we played Kansas tough at Kansas,” Christopherson said. “Actually, nobody really cares. The one-game season, it’s kind of a cliche, but Wednesday is a one-game season for us. If we’re going to compete in this league and be in the top two or three or have a chance to win it at the end, Wednesday’s a game [where we] need to protect our home floor.”