The heated intrastate rivalry of the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk series continues Thursday night, when the women’s basketball team takes on Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.

The Cyclones (5-1) are coming off their first loss of the season, falling to Pepperdine 52-46 in the championship of the Pepperdine Thanksgiving Tournament.

Junior Toccara Ross notched a double-double in both games of the tournament, earning herself a spot on the all-tournament team. Guard Lyndsey Medders was also named to the all-tournament team, after recording an impressive 23 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a 75-69 victory over Virginia Tech.

Iowa (6-1) suffered its only loss this season to Louisiana Tech at home. The Hawkeyes are led by 6-foot-6-inch center Megan Skouby, who is averaging 16.6 points per game.

ISU coach Bill Fennelly said Iowa is a good team and has shown the ability to both outsize and outscore its opponents this season.

“Their offensive efficiency and their size are two things that worry me,” Fennelly said. “When you play on the road and you’re playing against that kind of size and depth – we haven’t seen that all year. They’re going to have four kids that can eat up minutes, fouls, rebounds and points. It’s kind of unique because I think we may have to play the opposite – we may have to go small just to make them figure out what they’re going to do.”

Fennelly has four guards that have averaged 24 minutes per game – Medders, Heather Ezell, Megan Ronhovde and Alison Lacey – which may allow him to counter the Hawkeyes’ size advantage with a four-guard lineup.

An issue that Iowa State continues to address during practice in the early part of the season is turnovers. In their loss to Pepperdine, the Cyclones committed a season-high 21 turnovers, which is a number Fennelly said must be reduced.

“The [turnovers] where we throw the ball out-of-bounds on an inbounds pass or throw away an outlet pass, those are things that we’ve got to be better at,” Fennelly said. “When you’re playing a very good Iowa team on the road, you especially can’t give up the ball to a team that scores as many points as they score.”

Fennelly had his players run sprints in practice this week in order to make them aware of the turnover problem.

Medders, a senior and the Cyclones’ leading scorer at 16.5 points per game, said she is hoping to return from Iowa City with a road win over the Hawkeyes, something Iowa State has not done since 2000.

“Any time you play your biggest rival, it’s tough no matter where you play,” Medders said. “No matter who’s ranked, who’s not ranked, who’s favored and who’s not favored, it’s a rivalry game and it’s going to come down to who wants to win the game more.”

Medders has played well against Iowa during her career, averaging 17.7 points and 8.3 assists per game versus the intrastate rival. Sophomore Nicky Wieben had 19 points and 12 boards in the 77-61 win over the Hawkeyes last season at Hilton Coliseum.