Like most students, the Iowa State women’s basketball team is looking forward to a nice, relaxing break at the end a long semester.

If there’s any team that seems to have earned some time off, it’s the Cyclones. Iowa State has played one of the toughest schedules in the country, facing five teams whose RPI’s are ranked in the top-50 through 10 games. With an 8-2 record in those 10 games, the Cyclones themselves are currently No. 5 in RPI.

However, one challenge remains before the team goes on a 10-day long break: a Wednesday night matchup with Prairie View A&M. Sitting at 3-5 on the season, the Panthers aren’t necessarily the toughest opponent for the Cyclones on on paper, but head coach Bill Fennelly is still emphasizing the importance of finishing strong before the break.

“The maturity of your team is seen in a lot of different ways,” Fennelly said. “We’re done at 8:30-ish on Wednesday night, we’re not done yet. We’ll be ready to play, and we’re excited to get the opportunity.”

When the Cyclones last took the court, the team scored a tough victory against in-state rival Drake. The Cyclones fell behind early, but were able to bounce back and take the lead with a nice second quarter before hanging on the rest of the way for an 86-81 victory.

In his press conference, Fennelly compared the game against Drake to Iowa State’s meeting earlier in the month against Iowa, noting that, despite different outcomes, both were emotional, down-to-the-wire games against an in-state foe.

With that in mind, Fennelly went on compare Wednesday’s game against Prairie View to the one against North Dakota, which followed the Iowa State’s loss to Iowa. Specifically, Fennelly said that it’ll be important for the team to respond well once again, and not have a letdown after a big game.

“We played really well in a really emotional, physical game (against Drake) and we need to do the same thing on Wednesday,” Fennelly said. “The people who are coming to our game on Wednesday night are going pay the exact same amount as the people who played Saturday.”

To take that a step further, Fennelly then said that a game like the one against Prairie View is important for building a consistent home court advantage.

Fennelly said that treating every home game with importance, regardless of opponent, is what builds up fan investment in the team and makes for a better home environment. Ultimately, in his eyes, the team has done a good job of that thus far.

“it’s important that the people who come here and spend their money and spend their time leave here feeling like ‘hey that’s my team,’” Fennelly said. “This team, because of the way they play, the way they act and the way they conduct themselves has entertained the fans, and that’s what this is supposed to be about.”

With this particular game, a letdown in front of those fans doesn’t seem likely. The Panthers come into Wednesday with only one win against a Division one team, a 67-59 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christie. On top of that, the Panthers lost to Arkansas, whom Iowa State beat by nine points, by 27.

In an effort to talk up Prairie View, however, Fennelly said that the Panthers will offer the Cyclones some unique looks. Mainly, the Panthers will press quite a bit, which could lead to some turnover problems if Iowa State is caught looking ahead to its aforementioned 10-day break.

“The thing that we’ll see from Prairie View that we have not seen, since Auburn probably, they are going to press us the entire game,” Fennelly said. “They’re going to make the game scattered and wild.”

Tip-off from Hilton Coliseum will be at 6:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on Cyclones.TV.