Struggling offensively during a three-game losing streak, the women’s basketball team will shoot for a season-defining win on Thursday night when they take on the No. 22 Texas Longhorns (13-4, 2-1 Big 12) at Hilton Coliseum.

After rattling off a ten-game winning streak in a 13-1 start, the Cyclones (13-4, 1-3 Big 12) have dropped three straight conference games and are tied with Missouri for tenth place in the Big 12.

The game against Texas was originally scheduled for Wednesday night, but was moved to Thursday after the Longhorns’ plane was grounded in Austin by an ice storm.

The skid has made coach Bill Fennelly decide to try some new lineups in an attempt to jump-start his offense. The Cyclones, who scored 74.5 points per game in nonconference competition, are averaging just 57 points in Big 12 play.

“We’re going to experiment with some players not just from a game plan standpoint because of Texas’ size and strength, but we need to rekindle the fire in some of our players,” Fennelly said.

Fennelly said Lyndsey Medders, Megan Ronhovde and Nicky Wieben will be in the starting lineup for Wednesday’s game, leaving the other two positions open for a game-time decision.

The Longhorns enter the game having won three straight and six of their last seven, most recently downing Colorado 68-49, in Austin, Texas. Fennelly said Texas is a team that is well-coached and has a roster littered with high school All-Americans.

Fennelly added that Texas will present a large challenge to his team in the form of 6-foot-3 post player Tiffany Jackson, who is averaging 19.9 points and nine rebounds per game this season. Jackson was labeled by Fennelly as a “top two or three draft pick” in next year’s WNBA Draft.

While analyzing why his team is not having the same success it enjoyed earlier in the season, Fennelly pointed to the offense as the key.

“You look at our defensive numbers and they’re good,” Fennelly said. “But our offensive numbers are poor. Whether its field goal percentage or free throw percentage, [they’re] things that we need to be efficient at to have a chance to win.”

After shooting just 5-of-21 from the field in last Saturday’s 45-44 loss to Oklahoma State, Medders said she feels pressure as the team’s point guard to get the offense back on track.

“We’re getting everything that we were in the preseason – we’re getting the same shots. [The shots] just aren’t going in right now, and that’s something we’re going to have to correct,” Medders said.

Medders said the intensity of practice has picked up as the team begins to realize the extremely high level of competition within the Big 12 conference.

“The thing with the Big 12 is every single week you’ve got two games against two really good teams. Top to bottom, it’s proven that it’s one of the best leagues in the country right now,” Medders said.

Iowa State lost its regular season matchup with the Longhorns last season 80-50, but earned a 72-68 victory over Texas in the Big 12 tournament last March.

“When we beat Texas last year, that was a hell of an effort by our kids, and we’re going to need that kind of effort again,” Fennelly said.