The Iowa State Cyclones (15-10, 7-7 Big 12) will head to Manhattan, Kansas, to face the Kansas State Wildcats (13-12, 7-7 Big 12) on Wednesday.

The Cyclones are coming off a controversial 74-77 loss to the Texas Tech Lady Raiders. Rae Johnson was called for a foul on Texas Tech’s Chrislyn Carr with 1.3 seconds remaining on a three-pointer, giving the Raiders three free throws to win the game.

But Iowa State needs to move its focus to Wednesday, as the game against Kansas State has huge conference implications.

The Cyclones and Wildcats are tied for fourth place in the Big 12 Conference.

“Seed 3 through 10 is open for a lot of things,” Head Coach Bill Fennelly said. “But that’s what makes this league fun and challenging because there’s a lot of big games to play.”

The Cyclones trail the Texas Longhorns by one game for third place, but are only two games ahead of Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma, who stand at 5-9 in conference play.

Iowa State has upcoming games against West Virginia (6-6), Kansas (2-12), and Baylor (15-0). That means that the next two games could move the Cyclones up or down significantly.

“We just got to take it one game at a time,” said sophomore Ashley Joens. “We just to stick together like we have the whole season because we’ve had some ups and downs.”

It all starts on the defensive end Wednesday for Iowa State. The Wildcats have one of the most dominant post presences in the conference in freshman Ayoka Lee. Lee, who stands at six-foot-five, is the Wildcats’ leading scorer at 16.3 points per game. Her length allows her to be a threat on the defensive side. Her 11.28 rebounds per game and 3.2 blocks per game rank third in the Big 12.

In addition to Lee, the Wildcats also have a six-foot-four forward in Peyton Williams. With Lee coming in, Williams has had to adapt to more of a perimeter style of play rather than as a low-post presence. But it hasn’t slowed her down as she is still averaging 15.9 points per game and 11.2 rebounds per game.

“It’s going to start with can we in any shape or form, handle what they are going to do on the inside,” Fennelly said. “They will probably name the Freshman of the Year award after Lee because she’s won the Player of the Week award so many times.”

Lee has won the Big 12 Freshman of the Week award 11 out of the 17 times it has been given out this year.

But what may help the Cyclones is that they just played one of the other most dominant post players in the Big 12 in Texas Tech’s Brittany Brewer. Brewer scored 27 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 7 blocks.

Iowa State has been turning to focus on solving its own issues though, most importantly, turnovers. The Cyclones turned the ball over 20 times against Texas Tech. Iowa State’s -3.28 turnover margin is last in the Big 12 and 437 turnovers (17.48 per game) is second to last.

One of the players that has had the biggest issue with turnovers is freshman Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw. Espenmiller-McGraw scored 14 points along with a 4-4 day from 3-point land on Sunday. But her 8 turnovers may have overshadowed her great shooting performance.

“The biggest thing is that when you go through tough times you can’t make an excuse for what happened and just play through it,” Fennelly said. “From the day she showed up, I told her the mistakes are going to make happen but your excuse can’t be that you’re a freshman.”

The Cyclones remained a 10 seed in the latest ESPN Bracketology despite the loss to Texas Tech.

But a loss could change many things, especially to a team of similar caliber in Kansas State. It is games like these where Iowa State has a great opportunity to rise in the eyes of experts.

“In the past we’ve stuck together very well so I don’t doubt this team at all,” Johnson said.