Iowa State will get a rare chance to complete a season sweep against Nebraska on Wednesday night, taking on the Cornhuskers in the Cyclones’ last conference road game of the season.

Iowa State’s first Big 12 win this season was over the Huskers, 65-53 on January 14. Since that conference win, Iowa State has gone 2-10, but remains confident for its match-up with the undersized but tough Cornhuskers, who have the top-ranked scoring defense (59 ppg) in the Big 12.

Senior guard Bryan Petersen smiled and shook his head when asked about the Husker defense that has given up 70 points only five times this season.

“I’d rather just win, I don’t care if we score 40 points, you know?” Petersen said.

Both Iowa State and Nebraska have been Big 12 anomalies, with strong defensive play to complement low-scoring, long-possession offenses. The two squads lead the Big 12 in fewest turnovers and scoring defense, but the Cyclones and the Huskers rank 10th and 11th, respectively, in scoring per game.

“Mainly, we just want to go in there and get back to the way we’ve played defense pretty much the whole year, and if we score some points, we score some points,” Petersen said.

Nebraska has played well at home this year, knocking off Missouri, Texas and potential tournament team Creighton at the Devaney Center, something that doesn’t bode well with Iowa State’s current 15-game conference road losing streak.

“We want to finish [the season] as strong as we can, and go to the tournament and see what we can do,” guard Lucca Staiger said.

The small Nebraska squad has out-hustled teams in its conference wins this season, with none of their players averaging more than 12 points a game, and ISU coach Greg McDermott has mentioned how the Huskers don’t crash the boards in order to get back on defense and make stops.

McDermott said he felt that his team’s defensive play peaked in the Kansas State loss two weeks ago, and after a bad second-half lapse in a loss at Texas A&M on Saturday, the team will need to up the slack.

“Particularly with our defense — we have to play a good team defense, and help each other out,” Staiger said. ISU leading scorer and rebounder Craig Brackins should be able to use his length to his advantage against the smaller defense, after logging 21 points and 12 rebounds in the first meeting against Nebraska. Brackins has led the team in scoring in 18 of the last 20 games for Iowa State, and led in rebounding for the last 15 games.

Nebraska has lost their last three games, including a 57-55 buzzer-beating loss against Texas A&M at home last week. The Cyclones know this is a team they can beat, but the all-important question for McDermott’s team is whether they can do it on the road.