It’s a game that everyone involved has worked all year for. Forty minutes to determine a conference champion.

And for the first time in the program’s history, Iowa State is one of the teams involved.

The Cyclones will take on the Texas Longhorns tonight at 7:30 p.m. in a game that will decide if Iowa State could become the conference champs.

“It’s a good thing, a game that’s really fun to play. Obviously there’s more pressure and more at stake, but it’ll be good to play in,” ISU coach Bill Fennelly said.

Iowa State must play without standout forward Desiree Francis, who is out indefinitely after breaking her left hand in Iowa State’s win over Baylor Saturday night.

This fact combined with Texas’ 10-2 record at home leaves the Cyclones a decided underdog for perhaps the first time this season.

Fennelly says that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“I think it’s good, actually. We’ve played some pretty good teams that we’ve still been beaten. We lost to Stanford out there, and everybody was talking about what an upset that was,” Fennelly said.

Texas is led by Edwina Brown, who is averaging a conference-high 21.8 points per game. Also averaging 8.3 rebounds per game, the 5-10 senior forward is a lot to handle.

“We’re going to use the Lynn Pride rule on her. We’re going to double-team and try to make it hard for her to score. She’s got a good jumper, and she likes to create off the dribble,” forward Monica Huelman said.

Francis was averaging 13.4 points and 6.3 rebounds, and Iowa State will do a number of things to try to compensate for the loss.

“We’ll probably play a four-guard lineup a lot more, and have to move Tracy Gahan and Megan Taylor to four. What I’ve told them is that seven people need to score one more basket, and six people need to get one more rebound,” Fennelly said.

Huelman and center Gintare Cipinyte will both be asked to step up.

Huelman, the program’s all-time leader in games played, says she is looking forward to it.

“When I wasn’t playing a lot, the coaches kept telling me to be ready in case something did happen, so I’ll be prepared to step in there,” Huelman said.

The Cyclones have had no problem getting production from center Angie Welle, who was named Big 12 Player of the Week after averaging 26 points and shooting 20-21 from the field in wins over Baylor and Texas A&M.

After playing Texas, the Cyclones will have a full week off before beginning the Big 12 tournament, which is a change from years past.

“There used to be such a quick turnaround between the end of the regular season and the start of the tournament. One year, we played Colorado on Saturday, and then started the tourney Tuesday. It’s one thing that the Big 12 coaches really wanted,” Fennelly said.

The season will come down to one game, and Fennelly said his team is not just heading to Austin looking to be competitive.

“I told the players that if any of them don’t think we can win, then don’t get on the plane,” Fennelly said. “We’re going down there to win.”