Cyclones looks for strong response after Baylor win

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Wesley Winterink

Iowa State junior Ashley Joens looks up at the basket Dec. 18 against Kansas State at Hilton Coliseum. Joens scored 25 points in a 91-69 win over the Wildcats.

Megan Teske

After a big week where the Cyclones took down two previously undefeated Big 12 teams — Oklahoma State and Baylor — Iowa State will look to extend its win streak Tuesday against Oklahoma.

The No. 24 Iowa State Cyclones handed both Oklahoma State and then-No. 6 Baylor their first losses in conference play, and as the Cyclones now sit atop the Big 12 standings, they will look to bring their win streak to four against the Sooners at Hilton on Tuesday.

After the big win over Baylor in Waco, Texas, Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said the team rewatched the final four minutes of the game Sunday and put the final score on the scoreboard for 10 minutes during shoot-around.

Fennelly, who preaches a “next 40 minute” philosophy to the team, said he gave the team a moment to enjoy the win, but then it was on to Oklahoma.

“That’s just the nature of what we’re about,” Fennelly said. “We’ve always been that way, you gotta come back from disappointment in a loss with some maturity and you gotta do the same thing after you win.”

Fennelly added that if Iowa State doesn’t play well against Oklahoma, the narrative will be different, so the team has to prepare and show up for the next game.

Junior guard Ashley Joens, who won Big 12 Player of the Week after big games against Oklahoma State and Baylor, said it was good to celebrate the accomplishment of beating Baylor in Waco, but that they also needed to learn from the game.

“Then to know that that’s over and we have to learn from what we did during that game and what we didn’t do during that game to move on and get better for our next one here against Oklahoma,” Joens said.

Fennelly said he is not worried about how the freshmen will respond after a win like Iowa State had, and he knows they’ll respond great because they will play hard and play how they are coached to play.

“I’m not worried about the hangover effect of what happened on Saturday,” Fennelly said.

Freshmen guards Emily Ryan and Lexi Donarski both played well Saturday, with Ryan earning her second Big 12 Freshman of the Week award.

Ryan notched 15 points, five rebounds and three assists Saturday while Donarski tallied 17 points, a rebound and two assists against Baylor.

Joens said she would tell the freshmen to learn what they did and did not do during the game so they can get better for the next game.

Donarski said they are really focused now on the next game, with the Cyclones having two practices with the scout team now.

Donarski added they will need to follow the scouting report and know the personnel in order to be able to beat Oklahoma.

“Oklahoma is a very strong offensive team,” Donarski said. “They have a lot of different people that can shoot the ball and attack and stuff like that so we’re just really going to need to follow our scouting report.”

Iowa State will take on Oklahoma at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hilton Coliseum. The game will be available to watch on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.