The Iowa State women’s basketball team will head to Fort Worth, Texas for a matchup with the TCU Horned Frogs on Sunday afternoon.

The Cyclones (10-6, 1-4 Big 12) face off against a struggling TCU (8-8, 0-5 Big 12). Although the Horned frogs are winless in the conference, coach Bill Fennelly isn’t looking past them in the slightest.

“They’ve played a really hard schedule starting out,” Fennelly said. “Every time we’ve played them it’s kind of the same. They like to press, really get after you defensively. They’ll spread the court and shoot the three really well.”

Iowa State is coming off a frustrating loss to Oklahoma on Wednesday night. The Sooners ran many different defenses, including the full-court press. Fennelly expects to see more of the press from TCU based on the team’s past experiences in Fort Worth.

The Cyclones struggled to break the press from Oklahoma, especially late in the game. The team finished with 13 turnovers and gave up 15 points off those turnovers.

“I think just staying calm and doing what we need to do, knowing the game plan from the beginning,” Buckley said. “The big thing is just staying calm. That’s what the press is, upbeat defenses trying to caught off guard, so that will be important.”

Another aspect that has been rocky for the Cyclones is their second half shooting. Iowa State has seen its shooting performance dip when it comes to the first and second halves. Fennelly couldn’t point to anything as the sole reason for the slump.

“I think it’s probably a bit of everything,” Fennelly said. “I think it’s a little bit of fatigue, maybe it’s shot selection, you have to give the other team credit when they come out and guard us better. I don’t think, when you look at numbers, you could ever point to one thing as the reason.”

One player that has stepped up the past couple of games is sophomore guard Bridget Carleton. Over the past two games Carleton has scored 36 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and hasn’t missed a free throw in her last 14 attempts.

In the Oklahoma game, Carleton took an elbow to the head and had to leave the game to stop the bleeding. She finished the game regardless of the fact that she would wind up getting three stitches above her left eye after the game.

Last year, Carleton took a shot to the face during a game that required her to get stitches put in on her upper lip. Despite the hard hit to the head and stitches, Carleton will be playing on Sunday.

“I want to avoid [being off the court] as much as possible,” Carleton said. “I hate just having to watch, especially when my team is out there getting better. Even practice, I hate sitting out, but I’m good to go today, no concussion or anything, I’ll be fine.”