The ISU women’s basketball team will tip off against one of only three remaining unbeaten teams in the Big 12 on Wednesday night, taking on Colorado in Boulder, Colo.

Coming off their first conference defeat at the hands of Missouri, the Cyclones (13-2, 1-1 Big 12) will shoot for their first road win since toppling Iowa on Nov. 30.

Senior Megan Ronhovde, who scored a career-high 24 points against the Buffs in 2005, said playing on the road in the Big 12 is always a challenge.

“It’s a tough league; it’s always been a tough league ever since I’ve been here,” said Ronhovde, who is averaging six points and 5.3 rebounds per game this season. “When you go out on the road in the Big 12, you’ve got to be fortunate and try and steal a couple wins.”

The last five meetings with the Buffaloes have gone to Iowa State, including an 86-71 victory in Boulder last January.

Coach Bill Fennelly said he has always stressed to his team the importance of being able to finish games, both on the road and at home. The Cyclones led late in Saturday’s loss to the Tigers but lost by 10.

“The next step in the maturation of all teams is to finish – we finished at UNI, we finished at Iowa and we finished against Kansas,” Fennelly said. “We didn’t finish the other day [against Missouri], and we have to be able to do that.”

A trend that has developed for the Cyclones as they enter conference play is their perfect record when scoring more than 60 points.

All 13 times the Cyclones have reached the 60-point mark this season have resulted in wins, and both of the team’s losses came when it failed to tally more than 60 points.

“We’ve got to score more points,” Fennelly said in reference to the first two conference games. “You can’t win games consistently scoring 61 and 56 points.”

Although the team has suffered only two losses midway through its season, Fennelly said his team must improve from game to game in an attempt to establish itself near the top of the conference.

“The glass isn’t half full, it’s almost empty – that’s the way we live,” he said.

He added that the level of competition in the Big 12 rivals that of any conference in the country.

“There are 12 teams in our league, and nine of them have already gotten beat,” Fennelly said. “We could be in a tie for third Wednesday at 10 o’clock, or we could be in a tie for 11th – that’s how jumbled this league is going to be, and I don’t think that is going to change until the end of the season.”

Game time is 9 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.