As the college basketball season winds down, the ISU women are concentrating on building momentum to have a strong showing in the Big 12 tournament.

The Cyclones have just three games remaining in the regular season, and with a 10-14 record overall and a 5-8 mark in the Big 12, they need a big finish before heading to Dallas for the conference tournament.

The first team in the way is Colorado. The Buffaloes (19-5, 5-8 Big 12) will be looking for their first season sweep against Iowa State since 1997. They beat the Cyclones 64-63 in Boulder, Colo., on a basket by freshman Amber Metoyer with 1.5 seconds remaining in the game. Iowa State had led the game by 11 with less than eight minutes left, but were outscored 17-5 the rest of the game.

Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said his team’s sloppy play was its downfall in that contest.

“We were in the game the whole way,” he said. “We turned the ball over 20 times, which you can’t do against a Colorado team. They’re playing very well, they’re playing with great confidence.”

Colorado head coach Ceal Barry said her team was lucky to escape with the win.

“That game could’ve easily gone the other way; it could’ve gone either way,” she said. “Both teams played hard. Both teams played good defense. We just happened to have the momentum on the last possession.”

Barry credits the Iowa State defense for making the game so close. “They did such a great job of taking away Kate Fagan, Sabrina Scott and Tera Bjorklund,” she said. “They focused on those three players so well and they did a really good job on it. In those situations you have to have other players step up.”

Fagan, Scott and Bjorklund are the Buffaloes’ top three scorers, led by Bjorklund’s 16.3 points per game. The trio combined for just 17 points in the first meeting between the two teams, with Scott being held scoreless and taking just two shots.

Fennelly said it was the players that Iowa State didn’t focus on that caused all the trouble.

“Hopefully their role players won’t play as great as they played last time and we can still do some good things with their best players,” he said. “We’re gonna have to do some things inside to try and slow their inside game down, because they have much more size than we do. Hopefully we’ll not run into a team that gets real hot from the perimeter.”

Barry is confident that her team will be prepared for the rematch with the Cyclones, and said it will be an even better game than their first thriller, as the players will be more familiar with their opponents.

“Your players know the things that maybe they could’ve done a little bit better on, a little bit sharper on the first time and possibly change the outcome.”

The Cyclones have just two home contests remaining this season. They play their final home game against Nebraska on Saturday.