The No. 22 ISU women’s basketball team had the luxury of familiar facilities and “Hilton Magic” to start the 2013-14 basketball season, beating North Dakota and South Dakota to start the season 2-0.

The Cyclones hope to continue that pattern away from the friendly confines of Hilton Coliseum.

Iowa State will travel to Cincinnati for a road test against the Bearcats on Thursday, Nov. 21, for the earliest out-of-state road game since a Nov. 19 matchup against Creighton in 1999.

ISU coach Bill Fennelly expects more of a challenge against the Cyclones’ first BCS-conference matchup of the season.

“The word I’d use is balance,” Fennelly said of the Bearcats. “They play a lot of kids; they can score, and I think they can defend from one to five. … So they are bigger, stronger, more athletic than the teams we have played to this point.”

Iowa State will again be the shorter team on the court when it faces off against Cincinnati. The Bearcats have six players on the roster breaking 6-feet, while the Cyclones have only three players above that height.

Although the Cyclones have been the smaller team on the court in both games this season, they’ve out-rebounded both teams by an average of 40-to-36. Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky, who stands at only 5-foot-7, is second behind Hallie Christofferson in rebounds, averaging seven per game.

With rebounding becoming an unexpected bright spot, the team is now focused on finding other ways of scoring aside from relying on Christofferson, the preseason All-Big 12 forward. After going into halftime with a slim 35-34 lead against South Dakota, Iowa State had to re-evaluate its game plan.

“We were all looking at one point for [Christofferson] to score 32 points again,” said junior Brynn Williamson. “We have been so comfortable with relying on [Christofferson] so much that as soon as she wasn’t getting the ball, everyone was like, ‘Well, now what do we do? Who do we look to next?’ [The freshmen] need to realize it’s them.”

One of those freshmen is Jadda Buckley, who was a scoring machine coming out of high school. The top-50 recruit set her school’s 3-point record and was one of the best shooters Fennelly has picked up in a recruiting class.

However, the sharp-shooter has been a bit gun-shy. Buckley leads the team in shooting percentage (.556), but has only taken nine shots all season. With the first road trip of the year Thursday, she hopes to change that.

“Coaches have had some discussions before about me looking to score and shoot,” Buckley said. “I think it’s an adjustment for me, and I’m trying to come along and do my best to fit into that role.”

However, the biggest adjustment for the Cyclones on the road might be caused by being spoiled at home. After two home games averaging nearly 10,000 fans, the Cyclones will have to adapt to a quieter game as Cincinnati averages about 600 fans per game.

“It’s one of those games where we have to generate our own enthusiasm and our own effort, and that’s hard,” Fennelly said. “That’s something you have to deal with going on the road. It’s a weird part, but hopefully we can handle it.”

The Cyclones will tipoff against Cincinnati at 6 p.m. on Thursday.