The ISU women’s basketball team is off to its best start since the 2001-02 season, when the Cyclones had a 24-9 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

After cruising to victory in their first three games with an average margin of victory of 53 points, the Cyclones will face their first stiff competition of the season when they play the Iowa Hawkeyes on Wednesday for an intrastate showdown at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa State is coming off a 113-45 victory over Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne, in which Anne O’Neil ended the game two assists away from the first triple-double in ISU women’s basketball history. The senior pulled down 10 rebounds and scored 15 points in 24 minutes of action.

Iowa (4-0) heads into the next contest in the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series on the heels of a 54-47 victory over the No. 21 Oklahoma Sooners in the Junkanoo Jam Tournament in Freeport, Bahamas.

The Hawkeyes held the Sooners to 24 percent shooting from the floor and forced 17 Oklahoma turnovers.

“Obviously, Iowa has been playing great. You don’t hold Oklahoma to 47 points — Oklahoma’s a good offensive team,” said ISU head coach Bill Fennelly.

Iowa is 2-0 against Big 12 teams after beating Missouri 75-54 earlier this season.

Junior Crystal Smith is the leading scorer for the Hawkeyes with an average of 14.8 points, while senior center Jamie Cavey is a close second with an average 14 points per game.

Fennelly said lately Cavey has been playing great for the Hawkeyes.

“No one thought she was going to be that good of player, and if anybody says that, they’re lying,” Fennelly said. “Jamie Cavey has worked hard and has been well-coached.”

Controlling the tempo will be key for the Cyclones. Iowa State is averaging 95 points per game while holding its opponents to 43 points. On the other hand, Iowa has been scoring at a much slower pace, averaging only 65 points per game while giving up 54 points.

O’Neil said the fast-paced tempo is what the Cyclones have grown accustomed to in the last three games.

“No matter what, we play Iowa State basketball … We’re going to play our style to win” against Iowa, she said.

One area of concern for Fennelly is the amount of minutes his starters have played to date. In the Cyclones’ first three games, no starter played more than 26 minutes.

“Whether or not they can go out there and play 35 minutes on the road and the emotion of playing, I don’t know,” Fennelly said. “We have a team that has worked very hard in the fall, and I will be absolutely stunned if we are talking about how tired we are after the game on Wednesday.”

Last season, the Cyclones outlasted the Hawkeyes in a double-overtime thriller 101-94.

Iowa State was led by a team-high 21 points from then freshman Lyndsey Medders, who also finished the game with nine assists.

Against IPFW, Medders came off the bench to score 16 points for the Cyclones, knocking down three 3-pointers and dishing seven assists.