Up until the last few minutes of the game, the ISU women’s basketball team had an answer for everything Baylor threw at it.

The Cyclones led or were tied with the No. 9 Lady Bears for the majority of the second half in Saturday morning’s conference matchup, but saw their lead slowly fade away when it came down to crunch time. Iowa State surrendered a 15-4 run in the final six minutes of the game and registered its sixth conference loss by five or fewer points this season.

“We’ve been in so many close games, and it feels like every time we come up short,” said sophomore Alison Lacey. “We kind of just fumble, lose it, and don’t focus like we should. It feels like every game is one that we could have had, should have had, and we just can’t seem to finish.”

The Cyclones (16-10, 5-8 Big 12) were hot right out of the gate, hitting four of their first six 3-point attempts. Every time Baylor (23-3, 11-2) grabbed a quick lead, Iowa State found a way to jump right back in, as the Cyclones either tied or regained the lead from the Lady Bears nine different times.

After taking a 28-27 lead, the Cyclones made a defensive stop with 30 seconds left, setting the stage for junior Amanda Nisleit, who hit an open 3-point shot in the waning seconds of the half to take a 31-27 lead into the locker room.

Nisleit carried the Cyclones offensively in the first half, single-handedly keeping the Bears from pulling away. She took all five of her shots from behind the three-point line, draining four of them. Three of these either tied the game or gave Iowa State the lead.

The Cyclones’ misfortune with injures struck again early in the second half when Nisleit went down with an ankle injury with 18:01 remaining. She joined fellow post players Tocarra Ross and Nicky Wieben – both out for the season with ACL tears – on the bench for the rest of the game. Nisleit’s status is unknown, but she will likely miss Wednesday’s game at Missouri.

“Nis is a pretty tough kid,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “I don’t know how bad it is, but she’s as tough of a player that we have on this team. And for her not to go back in, it had to be pretty bad.”

Baylor’s leading scorer, senior guard Angela Tisdale, scored nine of her 14 points after registering her fourth foul, playing the last 9:20 on the brink of fouling out. The risk paid off, as Tisdale immediately scored the next five points of the game, ending a three-minute scoring drought and initiating Baylor’s sprint to the finish.

“It’s called trust,” said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey. “When you have seven players, you don’t normally do something like that. We couldn’t get anything going offensively, and I figured it’s her senior year – her last time to win a Big 12 championship, her last chance to come to Ames, and I’m not going to waste her. And she made me look good.”

With 2:13 remaining and the Cyclones leading 54-52, the game-breaker came when Iowa State surrendered an offensive rebound to Baylor after a defensive stop – shortly after, freshman Melissa Jones hit a 3-pointer to give the Lady Bears the lead for good.

Baylor’s resurgence was assisted by Iowa State’s poor shooting, a dismal 28 percent from the floor in the second half, including a 1-for-8 performance behind the arc after making 7 of 14 in the first half. They finished the game 19 of 55 from the floor (35 percent).

“They played really good defense,” said Lacey. “And when we did get the shots we wanted, I don’t think we finished like we should have.”

Junior Jocelyn Anderson took all nine of the Cyclones’ free throws, making eight. She led the team with 14 points and also grabbed 11 rebounds and had seven blocks to clinch the first double-double of her career.