Hitting the road for the first time this season, the ISU women’s basketball team hopes to get rid of some demons.

For the past three seasons, the Cyclones have dropped their first road contest of the season, all against intrastate rivals – Iowa in 2002, Drake in 2003 and Iowa again in 2004.

Iowa State (2-1) is 1-2 in the past three games against Drake (2-2). The last time the teams met in Des Moines, Drake came away with a 61-36 victory.

“This is our first road game. When you’re playing an in-state team, it’s obviously a big game,” said senior Brittany Wilkins. “We went down there two years ago and got beat by 30, so that’s still in our blood, and we’re trying to get the freshmen to understand that, and how important every win is.”

Iowa State’s freshmen may need to learn that in a hurry, given their participation on this year’s Cyclone team.

Two freshmen round out the top five in minutes played this season: Heather Ezell leads the team with 108 minutes played and Nicky Wieben is fifth with 92.

The Cyclones, who average .250 beyond the arc, run into a very defensive-minded Bulldog team.

“Their philosophy is to really guard hard in half court and add a little full-court pressure, ” said coach Bill Fennelly. “I think the challenge for us will be handling their pressure defense and understanding what it takes to win on the road in that kind of environment.”

The Bulldogs have dropped two games in a row heading into Thursday night’s game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Junior Jill Martin leads all Drake scorers, averaging 12.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Freshman guard Jordann Plummer, averaging eight points a game, leads all starters in a field goal percentage of .448.

“They have great shot selection at the offensive end,” Fennelly said. “They share the ball very well; there are not just one or two players to focus on.”

Junior Lyndsey Medders said the team is still going to maintain its mentality of improvement.

“We try not to make any game more important than any other, because every win is still one win and every loss is still one loss,” Medders said.

“It’s an in-state game so we’ll be fired up to go.”

Iowa State showed its ability to bounce back after a loss, a factor that was in question, given the youth on the team. After losing big to North Carolina State in the Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas, the Cyclones bounced back and beat North Florida.

Medders said that quality was encouraging for the team and it needs to let that momentum snowball.

“We’re not going to let one loss give us another loss, and so on,” she said. “We can’t do that. If we lose, we lose; if we win, we win. The beauty of college basketball is you get another opportunity.”

The pressure defense Drake applies will force Iowa State to be careful with the ball. Coupled with the Bulldog’s 124-31 record in the Knapp Center, Iowa State knows it must have a very solid performance to come away with its first victory in Des Moines since the 2001-02 season.

“It will be an interesting challenge for our kids, and hopefully we’ll value the ball like we’ve been doing,” Fennelly said. “If we can do that then we have a chance.”

Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Drake Knapp Center in Des Moines.