No. 19 Iowa State women eager to end four-game skid Sunday at Oklahoma State

AMES — When Iowa State’s Sydney Harris squares up for an open shot behind the 3-point line she doesn’t think.

She simply lets it fly — and if the ball doesn’t glide through the net, she’s genuinely surprised.

But a made 3-pointer doesn’t hit the same when her short-handed 19th-ranked Cyclone women’s team is in the midst of a rare four-game losing streak.

“(It’s) good to see the ball go in, but we’re still falling short,” said Harris, who hopes to help ISU (14-4, 2-4) get back on track at 3 p.m. Sunday at Oklahoma State (15-4, 4-2). “So I want to win some games while making shots, so hopefully that’s what we can get done (in Stillwater).”

That hope must meet a new reality if the Cyclones are to beat the Cowboys, who rank seventh nationally in scoring average at 87.9 points per game, and 13th in rebounding margin at plus-10.5 per game. ISU, meanwhile, has struggled to score in its recent losses, while being outrebounded in each of those games. The Cyclones have also been outscored at the free throw line in three of those losses, so there’s plenty to fix as they continue to adjust to life without starters Addy Brown and Arianna Jackson, who are both out indefinitely with injuries.

“We’ve got, you know, the term no one likes to here, no margin for error,” said ISU’s veteran head coach Bill Fennelly, whose team hasn’t lost five games in a row since the 2015-16 season. “No one likes to hear that, but our margin for error is nonexistent right now, so we’d better figure it out.”

Part of there solution to this rare lengthy skid lies in simply making shots. Fennelly often says basketball is “a make/miss game,” and players such as Harris — who’s shooting 50 percent from 3-point range in two straight starts — can help the Cyclones regain their efficiency on the offensive end.

ISU also must find a way to get star center Audi Crooks more shots, as well. She’s the nation’s leading scorer, but had just seven points entering the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s 68-62 loss at Colorado. She finished with 17 points, but faced physical double and triple team coverage that’s unlikely to relent on Sunday or beyond.

“It can’t just be (point guard) Jada (Williams) entering the ball to Audi,” Fennelly said. “So we’ve gotta figure out ways to get other people open so the pass they make is a little more comfortable for them. We’ve worked really hard on what we call the hockey assist — we’ve got a make a pass to make a pass. And hopefully we’re getting a little bit better. We need to, for sure.”

They also need Harris to keep shooting with confidence, which is rarely an issue for her, unlike some of her less experienced teammates. She’s shot 40 percent or better from 3-point range in each of the past two seasons, but is hovering around 38 percent this season.

“Coach (Fennelly’s) just been saying with people out I have to take on a bigger scoring role,” Harris said. “And Audi’s getting tripled, (or) four people on her and stuff, so that’s leaving people open. We have to knock down shots at this level, otherwise we’re not gonna win games. We can’t rely on just one person scoring and he’s made that very clear. So I was glad to see the ball going in, but like I said, we still fell short, so (we’re) just working on figuring that out.”

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