Prior to Saturday’s game against No. 20 Baylor, the number three was in the mind of every single member of the ISU women’s basketball team and coaching staff.

The Cyclones have lost three straight games overall, three straight home games and three straight against Baylor (18-6, 6-5 Big 12).

But behind 13 three-point shots the Cyclones overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to defeat the Lady Bears 82-71 at Hilton Coliseum.

ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said he was proud of his team’s effort.

“I haven’t been this proud of a team in a long time,” Fennelly said, whose team is 11-11 overall and 4-7 in the Big 12. “Not just [because] we won the game but, like we told them, we lost three games in row at home, we have lost three games in a row in general and we lost three games in a row to Baylor. With 10 minutes to go in the game, we were on the verge of four. You’ve got to have something inside of you to keep playing and they did.”

With 14:41 remaining in the game and the score tied at 45, Baylor put together a 13-0 run. But after a missed 1-and-1 free-throw opportunity by Baylor’s Steffanie Blackmon, the Cyclones regained possession and Megan Ronhovde knocked down a 3-pointer to start an ISU comeback with 8:34 left.

With ISU trailing 64-59, Katie Robinette headed to the free-throw line for two shots, making the first one, but missing the second one. However, Ronhovde hustled her way to grab the rebound to give the Cyclones the ball back.

Ronhovde found Fox, who drained a wide-open 3-pointer to cut the lead to 64-63. The Cyclone defense forced a Baylor turnover and Erica Junod found Fox wide open again as she connected to put Iowa State up for good at 66-64 with 2:46 left.

Fox credits Ronhovde and Junod for the assists on her 3-point shots.

“You can’t be more wide open then that,” Fox said. “Erica and Megan found me. I couldn’t have made it without them passing to me.”

Fennelly credited Ronhovde’s hustle getting the offensive rebound.

“That was huge,” Fennelly said. “Those are the kind of plays that you’ve got to have to win a game like that. Megan made a great play and did the right thing. We got a wide open look.”

Ronhovde said all it took was a couple of shots to get the comeback started.

“Once we hit those first few shots, it got us going,” Ronhovde said. “The crowd gets into it. I thought our defense and rebounding stepped up big in that one stretch and that got us back into the game.”

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson said the Cyclones’ 3-point baskets proved to be the difference in the game.

“We didn’t guard anybody,” Mulkey-Robertson said. “We gave up threes. You live and die by the three and they lived by it tonight. When you shoot that many threes, you’re going to win a lot of ball games.”

Fox came off the bench and finished the game with a career-high 22 points as she hit 5 of 9 3-point shots.

“Mary’s a kind of kid that she’s been struggling,” Fennelly said. “I think she’ll be the first one to admit it. She hasn’t played very well. She’s been in coach Fennelly’s dog house a little bit, but she never quit trying. She hit some big shots tonight.”

A big change that Iowa State had to adjust to in the last two games was Lyndsey Medders running the point guard position and Anne O’Neil being the number two position.

“It’s not something that I had to learn because we’ve been doing it all season,” O’Neil said.

“Lyndsey did an excellent job getting the team off to a good start, hitting a couple of big threes that got the crowd into it and gave us a lot of confidence. I think we build upon that. We got down but everybody saw that look in their eye.”

Fennelly said it was a great day for ISU basketball.

“[After the game] I walked into the coaches’ locker room,” Fennelly said. “I always go in there after the game and try to collect my thoughts for about two minutes and I just looked up and said ‘Thanks, Pete.’ Two wins over good teams in similar fashions. It’s nice for our fans to walk out of here feeling a little bit better than the last three times they’ve been [here].”