Hallie Christofferson remembers exactly what happened on Iowa State’s last trip to Fort Worth, Texas.

The ISU women’s basketball team trailed by 15 points with about 12 minutes remaining in the second half of its game at Texas Christian University, but couldn’t complete a comeback and fell to the struggling Horned Frogs 61-58 on March 2. Iowa State will start of its conference season at TCU on Thursday.

A difference Christofferson has noticed in the Cyclones (11-0) this season is their maturity level. It’s something she and the rest of the team tried to build on from last year and pass that characteristic on to the freshmen.

“I think there’s just times in the game where it’s not going our way and we realize that and I think maybe last year we just kept going and we might have realized it, but we didn’t do anything about it,” Christofferson said of the difference between last season and this season. “This year I think we have the maturity level to realize it and actually do something about it.”

After remaining perfect in the non-conference portion of its season at 11-0, Iowa State now has an 18-game Big 12 schedule that will begin with two road games before the team returns to Hilton Coliseum.

ISU coach Bill Fennelly, who recognized the Big 12 as perhaps the toughest league in the country, stresses to his team that when Big 12 play begins, it is even more important to move past games quickly in their minds.

“If you win you better not celebrate too long, if you lose you better not feel sorry for yourself too long,” Fennelly said.

Junior guard Nikki Moody has been the ISU floor general again this season so far for her team. She has had five or more assists in eight of Iowa State’s 11 games this season and is averaging 11.5 points and 3.4 rebounds to go along with 6.6 assists per game.

When the nonconference season ends, Moody knows that the stakes are much higher and that nonconference was a tune-up to what Big 12 play will be like.

“Going into the Big 12, teams are a lot more competitive and a lot faster, a lot stronger and I think that’s really going to be the difference for us,” Moody said. “We have a chance to compete in the Big 12.”

Iowa State has won every game this season by at least 11 points, and has yet to face much adversity late in games. So in preparation for conference, the Cyclones have been trying to get ready for the size differences it will see among other things.

“Certainly we work on a lot of special situations because we haven’t been in a lot of close games yet,” Fennelly said. “You’ve got to worry about that and we spend a lot of time on special situations every day. The other thing is the size we are going to run into and when we do legitimately get in foul trouble how much can [Tenisha Matlock] help us in the Big 12 or how do we survive with a really small team in the game.”

Iowa State will tipoff against TCU at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Fort Worth, Texas.