The ball is in their court. Literally.

To guard its 16-game winning streak in Hilton Coliseum on Thursday night, the ISU women’s basketball team must first figure out how to guard against Iowa’s tricky triangle offense.

Not an easy thing to do in two days worth of practice.

“They’re hard to defend against,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly. “The triangle is a tough offense to defend, and in two days is hard to simulate.”

Led by senior guard Crystal Smith, who is averaging almost 22 points per game, the Hawkeyes (4-3) pose multiple threats to a young ISU defense.

“She’s unique . we can’t catch her,” Fennelly said. “There’s no way you can keep the ball out of her hands.”

For the Cyclones (3-1), it’s back to basketball fundamentals to stop Smith.

“Stay between her and the basket, make her hit a tough shot, don’t bail her out by committing a foul,” Fennelly said. “She’s not like a normal kid that you could deny the ball, you can’t deny her the ball. She’s quicker than anybody we have and then some.”

Smith, who poured in 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists last season against Iowa State, earned interesting praise from Fennelly.

“She’s like Allen Iverson . I’m talking about as a basketball player,” he said. “She plays hard.”

Cyclone starters have shown a lot of talent through their first four games, as Lyndsey Medders, Heather Ezell and Brittany Wilkins all average points in double figures. In addition to her nine points per game, Megan Ronhovde also chips in nine rebounds.

“Iowa’s a great team; they have an excellent program and our attention to detail has to be on top of its game,” Ronhovde said.

“We try to emphasize the importance of this game, but you’re going to have to wait until you get out on the floor to be able to understand it.”

Last season the Cyclones fell 89-80 in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes jumped out to a huge first half lead, held a 19-point advantage at the half and never looked back.

The ISU freshmen – Ezell, Nicky Wieben, Gillian Bjerke, Amanda Nisleit and Rachel Pierson – may be starting to learn the significance of this intrastate rivalry.

“You definitely hear about it all over campus in any sport when we play Iowa, especially because we lost to them last year,” Ezell said.

“We’re coming in ready to go, it’s a pretty big game.”

The last time the two clashed at Hilton, it was the Cyclones who came away with a thrilling double-overtime win.

“It was a great women’s basketball game,” Fennelly said. “Obviously, for us, the memory is much more pleasant because we won. We hype this up so much, and a lot of times it’s not a game. Last year’s wasn’t a game.”

Still, the hype will always present itself, and Fennelly said the Cyclones must show their passion. They just can’t let it work against them.

“I think if you don’t have that pit in your stomach where you feel like you’re going to throw up before the game, you shouldn’t be doing this,” he said.

“The key is, you have to get out of it quickly. The way you get out it is play hard in the first four minutes.”

The Cyclones are aware of the problems that Iowa’s depth presents, although it may not be a bad thing.

“They have some really good inside players, so we’re really going to have to try and jam in the inside quite a bit,” Ronhovde said.

“Their perimeter players are really good, as well. It’s not a team where you can typically just focus on the inside or the outside.

“We need to worry about all aspects of them.”

All aspects, including the physical battles.

“It’s going to be a very physical game,” Ronhovde said.

“There’s going to be battles inside with our post players, and it’s going to be physical on the outside as well. It’s going to be a battle all the way until that buzzer sounds.”

Thursday’s tip-off is at 7 p.m. in Hilton Coliseum.