The ISU women’s basketball team’s best player has only nine points in the last two games – a recipe for disaster for most teams.

The Cyclones, however, are not like most teams, thanks to their depth. Although senior point guard Lyndsey Medders has struggled, the team has not.

Iowa State (6-1) has gone 2-0 during Medders’ scoring drought because of key contributions from up and down the lineup. Medders has been double-teamed the past two games, but she has done a good job finding open players.

Even if Medders can’t snap out of her recent funk when playing the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday, the Cyclones aren’t worried because of their depth.

“In the past, we’ve had games where if Lyndsey didn’t score, we couldn’t win,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “If people are going to continue to do that [double-team Medders], then I think we can hurt them in other spots, and in the past we haven’t been able to do that.”

The Cyclones’ post game, in the form of Nicky Wieben, Rachel Pierson and Toccara Ross, stepped up to fill the scoring void the past two games. Wieben averaged 17 points and Pierson averaged 11.5, but perhaps the biggest contribution of all came from unlikely source Ross.

Ross, a junior forward who transferred from Kirkwood Community College, came into the season fairly unnoticed, but is making her presence known. She led the Cyclones with 23 points on Tuesday, and is leading the team for the season with an average of 14.7 points per game.

“The teams that we’ve had that have had a high level of success have a surprise player, someone that plays at a higher level than you anticipated,” Fennelly said. “We’ve had that a number of times, and so far that has been T [Toccara Ross]. I don’t know that there is a player of the newcomers in our league that have really impacted their team as much as she has.”

Ross and the Cyclones will be under the spotlight when the Cyclones take on a physical Minnesota team that is riding a four-game win streak. As the first semester winds to a close, Fennelly compared the game against Minnesota to a final exam that decides the grade the team will receive for the semester.

“What is our grade going to be?” Fennelly said. “We’ve done a lot of good work this semester to get a decent grade, but we need to do better on the final to get a really good grade.”

Medders’ play could go a long way to determining whether the Cyclones can succeed on the final exam. Through the first five games, Medders averaged 17.4 points a game, but she cooled down the past two games, averaging only 4.5 a game. Even if she isn’t scoring, her play running the offense and finding the open player largely impacts the game. When asked if she would break out of her scoring drought, her reply was simple and confident.

“Yes, I will. I’ll turn it around.”

If Medders does break out, and the Cyclones put all facets of their game together at the same time, watch out.

“I think we could be pretty dangerous,” Medders said.