Bill Fennelly has one last shot to toy around with his rotation before it starts to count, and he plans to take full advantage of it.

The ISU women’s basketball coach is dealing with a plethora of talent in the guard positions on his 2014-15 squad, which got its first taste of competition on Nov. 4 in a 99-53 win against William Penn. That game, however, was an exhibition matchup, as will be the case when the Cyclones host the Winona State Warriors Nov. 9.

Fennelly and his staff got a little creative with the lineups against the Lady Statesmen, which turned out to be a fruitful endeavor.

Perhaps most notably, Kidd Blaskowsky, a guard who played an important role off the bench last season, slid into the starting lineup in place of Nikki Moody, who is serving an indefinite suspension for behavioral reasons.

Blaskowsky filled in well, shooting 3-of-7 from deep, including the first bucket of the game, and grabbing a pair of steals that led to easy transition layups.

“Kidd deserved that. She probably practiced as well as anyone and [it’s] probably a team that needs sometimes some energy and some vocal leadership,” Fennelly said. “She’s good at that and gives us that. She earned the right [Nov. 4] and she’ll start again on Sunday.”

Also stepping up in the absence of Moody, who averaged 5.3 assists per game last year, were sophomore Jadda Buckley and freshman Nakiah Bell. The two guards facilitated much of the ISU offense, combining for 12 assists and just one turnover on the night.

Though the two had limited time playing together against William Penn, Fennelly caught a glimpse of future opportunities.

“We did not play Jadda and Nakiah at all together except for like a minute because that’s when [Seanna Johnson] got hurt,” Fennelly said. “We were going to put one in and one out. I liked to see that, because that was encouraging. The two of them together in certain situations could be fun to see.”

Johnson, a guard on the 2013-14 All-Big 12 Freshman Team, made a hustle play by saving the ball from the sideline – a play that led to an ISU layup. When she came back up from the sideline, however, Johnson was limping and holding her left knee.

Johnson was pulled from the game when Iowa State regained possession about 30 seconds, and thought she didn’t return, Fennelly doesn’t expect any issues moving forward.

“I think she just got one of those knee-to-knee things,” Fennelly said. “She said she was fine. She was going to come out anyway. She’s been a little banged up – she got hurt in Italy [over the summer] so we’ve been kind of extra careful with her, but she said she was fine.”

Though the rotations Iowa State played were often guard-heavy, forcing Buckley to sometimes move from the driver’s seat to shotgun, she said that’s simply a part of the game.

“I think it’s just playing the way we need to play,” Buckley said. “Yeah, there’s obviously more guards [this year] and you work with it and whatever works best out on the floor; whatever’s flowing smoothly, is what we need to do. Whether that’s having guards in, whether that’s having posts in, you work with it and whatever works best you just keep playing with it.”

The exhibition matchup with Winona State will be Fennelly’s last chance to try out whichever combination of guards he wishes before the results start to show up in the win-loss column. Though the final tally of the Nov. 9 game won’t count when the selection committee meets in the spring, guard/forward Brynn Williamson insisted it still counts to the Cyclones.

“Now we know what’s expected [of us] and even though it’s an exhibition game, like coach said, you’re wearing the uniform so it matters just as much as any other game,” Williamson said.

The ISU women’s basketball team hosts the Winona State Warriors in its final exhibition game of the 2014-15 season. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Nov. 9 at Hilton Coliseum.