After an eight-game, win streak-snapping loss to Texas, the ISU women’s basketball team turned it around against Kansas on Saturday night, even though it may not have been the prettiest win.  

It was a slow start for the Cyclones at Hilton Coliseum. Iowa State started 0-for-5 from the field, but senior Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky, sophomore Bryanna Fernstrom and redshirt sophomore Jadda Buckley picked up the slack.

“It’s always on to next one,” Blaskowsky said. “Whether you go 0-for-12 or 1-for-8, you’ve just got to remember to focus on the next one. Texas is behind us. Our focus was to beat Kansas. I can’t dwell on what I didn’t do. You’ve got to keep focusing and working at it. I’ve been getting extra shots up with coach Steyer, which I think really helped tonight.”

Blaskowsky had zero points against Texas. Fernstrom scored three points and Buckley had two against the Longhorns. But after a slow start against Kansas, Blaskowsky, Fernstrom and Buckley made it a collective effort to down the Jayhawks.

The Cyclones put together an 11-0 run that started toward the end of the first quarter and went midway into the second.

Fernstrom and Buckley finished with 12 points, and Blaskowsky finished with 11, but it wasn’t done in the sharpest of ways. The Cyclones never seemed to pull away against the Jayhawks.

“After the game, [ISU coach Bill Fennelly] was a little disappointed because after the Texas game, we should have came out a lot more effort and excitement,” Fernstrom said.

Fennelly said there were only two good things about the game: the crowd and the fact they won, 65-49.

“The biggest message is you can’t just decide what night you want to show up,” Fennelly said. “I don’t know that they weren’t happy with the way they played. I wasn’t happy with the way they played. We were disinterested for a lot of the time — nothing against Kansas. We’ve got to be more engaged from start to finish.”

Blaskowsky said Iowa State needed to play its game and not play down to any team.

“It was definitely a slow start,” Blaskowsky said. “We’ve got to play our game. We can’t play down to any team or let another team take advantage of our game. When you do that, that’s when you start struggling. This team has a lot of potential. We can do some serious damage in the Big 12.

“But we’ve got to stick to what we know and how we do it. A win is a win, and we’ll learn from this and get back at it.”