In basketball, things can change at a moment’s notice.

A few weeks ago, the ISU women’s basketball team was flying high. The Cyclones had won four of five games, including two wins against Texas, a team that was ranked No. 3 and No. 8 at the time of the games.

Fast forward a few weeks and the Cyclones are reeling after losing four of their last five contests.

The problem in the last game was rather simple. And it’s the same thing that has been plaguing the team throughout this rough stretch.

“We were a step behind everywhere and that’s just not a recipe for success for us and then you combine that with our inability to make any kind of shot,” Fennelly said of the game against Texas Tech on Feb. 11.

“You put those things together and we’re just not good enough, tough enough, whatever enough to overcome those kinds of things.”

The Cyclones have been struggling with “those kinds of things” for the past few weeks. Simply put, they’ve been a step slow defensively and they have not made shots when they have needed to.

The result has been a bunch of losses in games that the team felt were winnable. By all accounts, the Texas Tech game was not representative of the Cyclones’ aspirations.

“It was one of those games,” said Nikki Moody. “We couldn’t get a shot to fall sometimes and we weren’t in our flow.”

Another chance to get out of the funk that the team has been in is on the horizon. The Cyclones will head to Stillwater, Okla. on Feb. 14 to face off against the Oklahoma State Cowgirls.

The last time these two met up, Brittney Martin hit a fadeaway game-winner for the Cowgirls with a second left.

With the game going down to the wire last time, Iowa State knows they have a shot at turning things around against Oklahoma State on Feb. 14.

Fennelly pointed to the Texas Tech game as an example of how quickly things can change in the game of basketball.

The Cyclones missed three straight uncontested layups and on the other end, gave up two 3-pointers and one 2-pointer.

“You never know when the game can change,” Fennelly said. “That’s 14 points literally that changed hands in a minute and a half. Who knows if that would have changed the game … but you don’t know that it didn’t change the game either.”

The Cyclones have also been plagued by shooting issues. They shot just 3-of-20 from deep against Texas Tech and missed 11 layups by Fennelly’s count.

The shooting from downtown was not concerning. The team took shots that they could make, they just did not fall, Fennelly said. The mindset is to keep shooting and eventually the team has enough talented shooters that they will start to go down.

“If one doesn’t go in, I can’t mope about it,” said 3-point specialist Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky. “You got to focus on the next.”

That mantra goes with the team’s season as well as shooting. After losing four of the past five games, the team is still focusing on what’s up next, which will be the Cowgirls at 7 p.m. Feb. 14 in Stillwater, Okla.