Wesley Johnson will celebrate a piece of Iowa State history Wednesday. He’ll try to avoid repeating some of it when the Cyclones (10-6, 0-1) host Missouri (11-5, 1-0) at 7 p.m.

“We just let that get out of hand,” Johnson said of last season’s 77-55 loss to the Tigers. “We didn’t come out with the intensity and urgency we did in the first game that we played them.”

That first-game intensity resulted in a 66-65 win on Jan. 6, 2007. The Cyclones slipped away with a win on a buzzer-beater tip-in by Johnson off a Mike Taylor miss. A month later, the Tigers handed the Cyclones their worst home loss of the season.

“We’d like to do what we can to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” said Cyclones coach Greg McDermott.

To do that, they’ll have to avoid many of the mistakes that sank them against Baylor on Saturday. Against the Bears, Iowa State turned the ball over 19 times. Most of those turnovers helped contribute to a 22-2 second-half run for Baylor. The Bears, who trailed by seven at the half, used the run to go on to win, 74-67.

“That’s what happened,” said junior point guard Bryan Petersen. “They [Baylor] got a bunch of open looks because we couldn’t match up very well out of transition because we turned the ball over.”

On Wednesday, they’ll see much of the same pressure defense out of the Tigers that held the Cyclones in check at Baylor. The Tiger’s rank ninth nationally in forcing 19.9 turnovers per game. They also average 10.3 steals a game.

“Missouri is about as aggressive on the ball as anybody we’ll see all season,” McDermott said.

It’s that aggression that worries Petersen.

“That’s a big part of their game, is getting you to turn it over and it goes into their offense – speeding it up,” Petersen said. “It’s very important – if we try to play the same kind of style and don’t take care of the ball as well as we did at Baylor, we could be in trouble.”

Their age could cause some problems as well. The Tigers’ starting five are all upperclassman, including senior guards Jason Horton and Stefhon Hannah. Horton is second on the team in scoring, averaging 16.0 points per game, while Hannah is right behind him with 15.0.

“They’re deep, they’re very quick, very athletic and they have a great grasp of what coach [Mike] Anderson wants them to do,” McDermott said.

And the Tigers will get their first look at freshman Craig Brackins, who scored a season-high 33 points in the Cyclones’ loss to the Bears. The forward shot 8-of-10 from beyond the arc.

“I really credit Craig’s teammates during that stretch at the end of the first half,” McDermott said. “We did a good job of making an extra pass or setting a good screen to get Craig open.”

One of those teammates is Johnson, who hopes to add to his history against the Tigers when the Cyclones retire former Iowa State forward Barry Stevens’ No. 35 at halftime.

“We’re going to come in and try to get a win Wednesday to celebrate it,” Johnson said. “All we can do is get a win for him.”