In the Big 12 Conference, there is no time to sit back and take a breather — just ask the ISU women’s basketball team.

The Cyclones, coming off a week in which they played three games in seven days, will hit the court again on Wednesday when they host Texas A&M.

Iowa State lost all three of those games, two of which were to ranked opponents. They must now fight to get back on the winning track against one of the better defensive teams in the Big 12. The Aggies lead the conference in steals, and point guard Toccara Williams leads the nation with an average of five steals per game.

Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly has been stressing ball control all season, and this game will be no different.

“Ball security is something that we’ve talked a lot about,” he said. “When you play at home and you are playing a team that’s going to be in the second division like you are, you want to play well.”

Senior guard Lindsey Wilson will be looking for some retribution against the Aggies. Last year at College Station, the Aggies upset the Cyclones, who were ranked fifth at the time.

“That was just one of those games that we didn’t come ready to play and we couldn’t do anything right,” she said. “We had a tough game before that, and I don’t know if we just couldn’t rebound from that game or what. Everybody was doing everything possibly wrong that they could.”

The loss to A&M was the lone blemish for the Cyclones in the Iowa State-Texas A&M series. Iowa State has won eight of the nine games played between the two schools.

Texas A&M head coach Peggie Gillom wants to repeat last year’s performance against the Cyclones.

“We’re going up there to win a game. We’re not going up there to lose,” Gillom said. “We might lose the game but we’re going up there with the notion that we’re going to win this game.”

The Hilton Coliseum crowd always gives the Cyclones an extra advantage, but Gillom feels that any team can win any game, especially this season.

“Games you think you’re going to lose, you win, and games you think you should win, you lose,” she said. “It’s been that kind of year in the Big 12.”

Fennelly said he sees similarities between the Aggies and his own squad.

“They’re like us. They’re kind of undersized,” he said. “Hopefully when rebounding we can hang in there with them, and get some opportunities to make some shots.”

Iowa State played 11th-ranked Texas to the wire on Saturday, but could not overcome a 31-percent shooting performance in the second half and fell to the Longhorns 65-55.

Fennelly has been stressing offense in practice more since then, hoping to avoid a repeat.

“We shoot the ball a lot in practice anyway. Usually we’re about 50-50, offense and defense, in game preparation,” he said. “We’ve probably been 75-25 offense this week. Hopefully it improves a little bit.”

Fennelly said his team must work on the fundamentals to make up for its lack of size down low.

“Our turnovers are OK. Overall I have no complaints really, about our defense,” he said. “Our only challenge is defensive rebounding, and I knew that would be a problem because of our lack of size. We’re playing three and sometimes four guards at a time.”