AMES (AP) — Having just one day to prepare for its game with Oklahoma State might not be such a bad thing for Iowa State’s basketball team.

After the experience the Cyclones had at Colorado, the sooner they can start looking ahead, the better.

ISU, which entertains Oklahoma State on Monday night, was miserable on offense in a 70-52 loss at Colorado on Saturday.

The Cyclones not only couldn’t make shots when they were guarded, they couldn’t make them when they were open. They missed jump shots, layups and even free throws. It was excruciating to watch.

“I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to sit over there and just continue to see the ball clang off the rim,” ISU Coach Tim Floyd said.

The second half was especially bad. It took the Cyclones almost seven minutes to score their first points of the half. With 10 minutes left in the game, ISU had only 28 points. When the Cyclones finally got some shots to fall, it was too late.

“We were getting good shots,” Klay Edwards said. “But they just weren’t going down.”

Actually, ISU (10-13, 3-7) has been suffering on offense most of the season. The Cyclones are last in the Big 12 in scoring with an average of 62.4 points in league play and they’re shooting just 44.7 percent.

They haven’t had any consistent outside shooting all season and they rarely get much from their small forwards, putting the onus on inside players Marcus Fizer, Klay Edwards and Paul Shirley. If they don’t come through, ISU is in deep trouble.

Shirley, with 10 points, was the only Iowa State player in double figures Saturday.

“We’re simply not getting enough offense out of this team,” Floyd said. “I don’t know what to do. We’re trying to play a lot of different guys, trying to look at a lot of different guys. But offensively, we’re very tight.”

Compounding Floyd’s frustration is that his team often has played decent defense. Colorado, leading 35-25 at halftime, missed its first seven shots of the second half. But ISU didn’t score until Jerry Curry made a layup off an inbounds play with 13:02 left.

The Cyclones also missed four straight free throws early in the half and finished 6-for-17 at the line.

“I thought our effort was great defensively in the second half,” Floyd said. “It’s always been true that defense keeps you around in games, offense wins games for you.

“Right now, all we’re doing is neutralizing guys and trying to stop guys and we are really not making offensive plays and winning plays from the perimeter, the kind of plays you have to have to win, either at home or on the road.”

The Oklahoma State game is the first of three straight at home for ISU. The Cyclones then play at Kansas and at Baylor before finishing at home against Nebraska. They started Big 12 play with five of eight on the road.

“We have finally got ourselves in position where the schedule becomes favorable,” Floyd said. “Really what our team needed was to open up with these three games at home in league play and get ourselves up. Then maybe we can squeak out a win at Oklahoma or Colorado on the road. But that’s not the way it is.”

Oklahoma State (16-4, 6-4) is coming off an 85-72 victory over Baylor, its fourth victory in five games. The Cowboys usually are known for their tough defense, but they’ve been a high-scoring team this season, averaging 81.6 points a game.

Adrian Peterson, a 6-foot-4 junior, leads OSU with a 16.9 scoring average.

Floyd is hoping that with the Cyclones finally getting a stretch of home games, they haven’t lost their confidence.

“We’ll find out more about that Monday night,” he said. “I just hope that our crowd shows up and continues to support this basketball team and understands that they are a good group of guys who are fighting it every day and who are trying to get better, but it’s simply not happening for us right now offensively.”