The ISU women’s basketball team takes on yet another top-ranked team in the Big 12 as the No. 20 Cyclones visit No. 5 Baylor on Wednesday.

Both teams are on a winning streak, the Cyclones with eight straight wins and the Bears with seven.

This will be the Cyclones’ first road trip since traveling to Iowa City in early December.

“Its been a while since we’ve played on the road so we have to understand that,” head coach Bill Fennelly said. “And certainly when you play the fifth-ranked team in the country you learn quickly how you’re going to handle the road.”

Senior guard Jhasmin Player keeps the Bears together, averaging 9.6 points per game and shooting over 50% from the field.

“Jhasmin Player is a kid that does all the things they need done,” Fennelly said. “She’s a lot like Heather [Ezell], not the same style of play, but certainly what they mean to their team is very much the same.”

Ezell leads the Cyclones with 180 points this season.

Senior guard Rachel Allison and junior post Danielle Wilson dominate the offensive end of the court for Baylor.

Wilson leads the Bears this season, hitting 53.7% of her shots from the field and averaging just over 15 points per game.

“With her [Allison] and Wilson, they have two inside players that can compete with anyone,” Fennelly said.

Those two inside players lead the Bears as a tough inside team, something the Cyclones will have to counter with players such as Nicky Wieban and Amanda Nisleit in the paint.

“They’re a very experienced team, as physical a team as we’re going to play all year,” Fennelly said.

“A team that we haven’t faced in a long time with a powerful inside game.”

With a tough conference schedule getting underway, Fennelly touched on the importance of focusing the team’s attention on what lies ahead, rather than thinking about previous games.

“Whatever happens on Wednesday night, we have got to practice Thursday for another ranked team on the road,” Fennelly said. “And if you are at practice on Thursday and you’re feeling sorry for yourself for what happened Wednesday night, you’re going to get beat on Saturday.”

While Iowa State has continually been an outside-shooting team, the Bears are a very different team, always driving the ball to the rim.

“They are always in attack mode, going to the basket,” Fennelly said. “That is kind of Kim’s [Mulkey, head coach at Baylor] style. It is power, smash mouth basketball.”

The two teams play different styles of basketball, making for a competitive match up in years past.

“We’ve been really competitive for the most part with them,” Fennelly said.

“We’ve hard high-scoring games with them, we’ve had double overtimes with them. It didn’t matter if it was home or away.”