After two-time All-American Hallie Christofferson graduated last spring, ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly knew he had lost not only his leading scorer and top post player, but also his go-to scorer.

With five new faces on the team this year, to say the chemistry will take a step back would be on par with noting the sun is very, very bright.

The wealth of players at Iowa State’s disposal has led to good fortunes in that nearly every game a new player dominates the stat sheet. That blessing, however, also sometimes manifest itself as a curse.

While the ISU coaches certainly know where their players rank on the depth chart, it isn’t always clear what combination will find success any given day. That lack of certainty has led to a variety of lineups seeing time on the court this season.

“We just have to keep playing every lineup we can come up with,” Fennelly said. “We talk a lot about matchups and whatever, but the bottom line for us is we have to put five players in the game at a given time that give us the best chance to succeed. Sometimes that means your best five players are not position set.”

Going into the year, Fennelly openly acknowledged that sometimes a five-guard lineup would serve his squad best. That prediction came true Dec. 7 when Iowa State defeated Stony Brook, 74-64.

Freshman center Bry Fernstrom had a rough outing, putting up just seven points and six rebounds in 18 minutes. Though pulling her from the game and delegating her usual minutes reserves took away the Cyclones’ post threat, it turned out to be for the greater good.

“Certainly you have disadvantages if you don’t have a true center or you don’t have a true point guard, but you’ve just got to be creative and the players got to buy into something else,” Fennelly said. “You go out and play with whatever you have.”

An “encouraging” sign

ISU guard Jadda Buckley tore up the Big 12 on her way to all-conference honors during her freshman season last year, but even more was going to be expected of her this season.

Leading up to the SBU game Dec. 7, it wasn’t that Buckley was playing poorly that was bugging Fennelly, but rather that she had yet to maximize her potential on the court. Against Stony Brook, that changed.

“I thought Jadda was by far the best she’s been all year,” Fennelly said. “She had great practices leading up to it, and hopefully that’ll continue. I think that was a great sign for her…I think without question, the best she’s played and I think it gives her the confidence needed to move forward. It all started with the way she practiced.”

Buckley’s final line—13 points of 3-of-5 shooting from deep, three assists, zero turnovers and a pair of rebounds and blocks—showed that she’s in perfect position to be an all-around impact player for the Cyclones, which they will certainly need moving forward to Dec. 11’s game at Iowa and into the Big 12 season.

“Besides winning the game and all the stuff that went with it, that was probably the thing that made us the happiest was to see her back doing the things that we need her to do and that she’s capable of doing,” Fennelly said.