Iowa State women's basketball had a breakthrough season in 2020-21. Next year should be even better.

Shortly after the Iowa State women’s basketball team’s suffered a heartbreaking, season-ending overtime loss to Texas A&M in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Wednesday night, Cyclones coach Bill Fennelly reflected on how his team had overcome other tough times. 

The Cyclones, who started three freshmen guards and were without one of their top shooters from a season ago, still managed to produce a successful season. 

"This team persevered," Fennelly said following Iowa State's 84-82 overtime loss to Texas A&M Wednesday night. "And it turned out to be the best year. One of the best years, ever." 

Iowa State had just suffered a buzzer-beating loss that kept the Cyclones from reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2010. But the way Fennelly looked at it, in a lot of ways, even though his team came up short another round in the NCAA Tournament, they still exceeded his expectations for the season. The Cyclones finished the season with a wining record, had knocked off mighty Baylor and reached the NCAA Tournament again. 

“They earned everything that they got every single day and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Fennelly said.

It's easy to see why. 

Iowa State had plenty of obstacles along the way. The Cyclones, without a typical offseason, had to usher in four freshmen at the start of the season.  Three of them — Kylie Feuerbach, Emily Ryan and Lexi Donarski — were thrust into the starting lineup and stayed there for the majority of the season. A fourth newcomer, Aubrey Joens spot-started at times and helped fill the void of strong sophomore shooter Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, who was injured most of the season. 

Even starting center Kristin Scott, who was injured down the stretch, wasn't healthy for most of the season. But the young Cyclones largely thrived, going 17-11 on the season and 12-6 in Big 12 Conference play. Iowa State even secured ranked wins over two opponents, knocking off West Virginia and ending Baylor's 61-game home winning streak. 

"Our kids fought all year to do the right thing," Fennelly said. "We didn't miss a game. We didn't have a COVID issue. We played one of the toughest schedules we ever played. We played three freshman guards all year. We were hurt a lot. They never made excuses." 

PREVIOUSLY: 

• Buzzer beating basket keeps Iowa State out of the Sweet 16
• Iowa State senior Madison Wise playing with a heavy heart
• Bill Fennelly defends NCAA Tournament accommodations 

That's why expectations may be even higher for Iowa State during the 2021-22 season. The Cyclones should bring back a healthy Espenmiller-McGraw and all four freshmen. Then there's Joens' older sister, Ashley, who led the Big 12 in scoring the past two seasons. She'll be gearing up for her senior season.

To top things off, Iowa State’s next recruiting class has plenty of promise as well with 5-foot-11 guard Denae Fritz and 6-4 forward Maggie Vick coming to campus. The third member of the class, Izzi Zingaro, a 6-4 forward, finished high school early and joined Iowa State for the second half of this season.

Their first mission together: Bouncing back from Wednesday's heartbreaker that saw Iowa State led a 12-point lead in the second half disappear before losing on a buzzer beater.

But Ashley Joens believe Iowa State's young core can recover. 

"You just have to learn from what happened this season, in this game and the previous games and try to improve on it in the offseason," Joens said. "So, just telling them to keep their head up and keep working and staying in the gym and getting better. I think with this group of freshmen we have right now, that won't be a problem. They'll definitely be in the gym right away. They'll want to continue to get better and compete." 

Fennelly isn't worried. 

"Players bounce back a heck of a lot quicker than coaches do," Fennelly said. "They'll be fine. They're young. They're resilient." 

Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468. Follow him on Twitter @TommyBirch.