In the middle of a four-game win streak and back in the top 25 after a nearly one-month long absence, momentum is plentiful for the Iowa State women’s basketball team heading into Big 12 play.

After losing two of three games between late November and early December, both by fewer than five points, the Cyclones have since rebounded to finish the non-conference slate 10-2 thanks to their current win streak. That mark is much improved over the 6-5 record the team posted last season in non-conference play, and it comes as a direct result of a vastly improved home record.

Despite playing one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country, the Cyclones currently own a 9-0 record at Hilton Coliseum this season. Though only one of those victories was against a ranked opponent — then-No. 24 Miami —Iowa State has still managed to defeat a total of three Power Five opponents at home, as well as a tough Drake team.

According to players, the perfect home start has been the result of an increased emphasis to protect home court, which the team struggled with last season, going 7-8 at Hilton Coliseum. With such a big improvement, it makes sense why players are felling confident as Big 12 conference play begins.

“Obviously we’ve had some big wins at home so far,” said senior guard Bridget Carleton. “We made that emphasis in the beginning of the year that we don’t want to lose at home. We have great fans, great support system and it’s just so fun playing in Hilton.”

On Wednesday night, Iowa State will put that perfect home record on the line when it faces Kansas State in its conference opener. Though the Wildcats are currently a game behind the Cyclones in terms of overall record, sitting at 9-3 after non-conference play, they had a challenging preseason and certainly won’t be a pushover when they come to Ames.

In fact, all three of K-State’s losses this season have come to ranked opponents, and all of those opponents were ranked within the top 20. On top of that, the Wildcats bring back multiple players form a team that split the season series with Iowa State last season.

According to coach Bill Fennelly, a big challenge for the Cyclones will come on defense. Though the Wildcats don’t general put up a ton of points, Fennelly sees multiple players as potential threats to the Cyclones.

“[They’re] a balanced offensive team,” Fennelly said. “Peyton Williams in the post has had a really good year. Kayla Goth, her numbers are as good as any point guard and she’s always played great against us. Then they have two shooters on the wing in [Rachel] Ranke and [Christianna] Carr, and Kayla Jones can go rebound it.”

Fennelly then added that K-State presents a challenge because of the familiarity the two teams share with each other, which he says is an issue throughout the Big 12 because of the continuity most programs in the conference have.

“There’s only one new coach in the league so you sort of know generally what’s coming,” Fennelly said. “it’s just a matter of where they plug in new players and do they make slight adjustments. They like to control the pace of the game. They play a lot of 65-55 type games, so possessions will be of great value, as they always are in conference [games].”

That familiarity will almost certainly lead to even more tough games in the future, as teams will know and be able exploit each others’ weaknesses. It’ll also lead to a lot of physical matchups and close, nail-biting finishing as the margin for error decreases.

That’s why, according to Iowa State players, the tough non-conference schedule was a huge benefit for the team. While there are certain teams who like to use the preseason as way to pad records, the Cyclones have generally used it to prepare themselves for the two-month long grind that is the Big 12.

And according to sophomore guard Madison Wise, who’s now in her second year playing against Big 12 competition, the shift into higher-intensity games isn’t as a dramatic because of that scheduling philosophy.

“The Big 12 is obviously pretty difficult, but I don’t think there’s a huge shift,” Wise said. “I think playing a tough non-conference schedule has helped us a lot. [The key is] just paying a lot of attention to the scouting report now that we are playing twice a week, it comes pretty quick.”