It wasn’t a pretty matchup.

Kansas University’s women’s basketball team, a squad with glaring weaknesses in its perimeter defense lately, played host to Iowa State, a team that lives and dies by its arsenal of three-point shooters.

KU’s regular season ended with a 69-44 loss Wednesday to the Cyclones at Allen Fieldhouse.

ISU had five players hit a total of 11 three-pointers.

In the teams’ last meeting Jan. 11, the Cyclones also hit 11 threes.

Despite the loss, KU kept the ninth seed in the Big 12 Conference tournament and will turn around and play the eighth-seeded Cyclones again at noon Tuesday in Dallas.

“It’s a good thing,” sophomore Blair Waltz said of next week’s rematch. “If there isn’t fire in our blood already, it will definitely be there by game time.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t there Wednesday.

KU (10-17 overall, 3-13 Big 12) never gave Iowa State anything to be afraid of. The Jayhawks shot 32 percent from the field and attempted just one free throw the entire game. Waltz was the team’s leading scorer, managing just 10 points.

Kansas University's Keila Beachem hits the deck to fight Iowa State's Anne O'Neil (12) and Brittany Wilkins for a loose ball in the Cyclones' 69-44 victory as KU's Leila Mengüc looks on. The Cyclones spoiled the Jayhawks' regular-season finale Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Meanwhile, Iowa State (12-15, 7-9) hit 46 percent from the field, was 10-of-13 from the free-throw line and had three players in double figures, led by Mary Cofield’s 16 points.

“They did everything they needed to do,” KU coach Marian Washington said. “They penetrated, they found their open players, and they hurt us on the boards. This time around, I thought they were well prepared, and we didn’t respond.”

The Jayhawks tried responding to ISU’s three-point barrage, but to no avail. KU shot just 4-of-14 from beyond the arc and had less-than-spectacular nights in the paint from Crystal Kemp and Tamara Ransburg, who each finished with eight points.

Ransburg’s foul problems haunted her once again. She sat out most of the first half with two fouls and eventually fouled out in the closing minutes.

“Someone asked me if I feel like we reached the wall,” Washington said. “I didn’t think so, but I know that we leveled off.”

The good news is, Kansas knows what to look for the third time around. Iowa State has hit 22 of 56 shots from three-point range in the two victories over Kansas, and much of the same is expected in Dallas.

“We’ve been struggling with that,” Waltz said. “It’s crunch time. You either do it or you go home. We’ve got to really focus on it the next couple of days in practice.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times. I think we’ll come prepared.”

The winner of Tuesday’s game will face the top seed in the tournament, either No. 4-ranked Kansas State or No. 7 Texas, depending on K-State’s matchup with Texas Tech tonight.

Iowa State's Lindsey Wilson defends Kansas University's Blair Waltz (3), the Jayhawks' leading scorer with 10 points against the Cyclones. KU hit just 32.8 percent of its shots in a 69-44 loss Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.