One of the biggest issues the Cyclones have had to face this year has been dealing with injuries.

First freshman Claire Ricketts suffered a wrist injury, and then Jadda Buckley fell to an injury in her foot.

Now, with senior guard Nikki Moody struggling with a sprained ankle, the team has had to find another new way to cope with her injury and play through it. But instead of letting it take a toll, forward Fallon Ellis said the team is staying positive and finding a way around it.

“With the injuries that we have, we try not to let that get to our entire team,” Ellis said. “We try to encourage each other just to keep going. Injuries are a part of the game, but we just have to fight through it. That’s what we’ve been doing and that’s why we’re doing so well.”

Moody, who insists that she won’t miss any time due to injury, will look to lead Iowa State (14-4, 5-2 Big 12) to its fourth straight victory Jan. 28 against Kansas (11-9, 2-5 Big 12) at Hilton Coliseum.

The Jayhawks are on a win streak of their own as well. Kansas is fresh off a pair of comeback wins last week against Texas Tech and West Virginia, marking the team’s first two conference wins of the season.

Perhaps the best asset for the Jayhawks comes in the form of forward Chelsea Gardner. The 6-foot-3-inch senior is averaging 16.2 points per game and is shooting nearly 56 percent from the field.

In the Jayhawks’ last game against West Virginia, Gardner finished with 20 points and 20 rebounds, marking one of the best games in her career.

After seeing and scouting Gardner’s play the past few seasons, ISU coach Bill Fennelly has been able to see just how good she really is.

“She was my preseason player of the year,” Fennelly said. “She’s a pro. She plays like it and she scores like it … I would be shocked if she’s not a first round WNBA pick. So were going to get tested again.”

So what do you do when faced with the challenge of guarding a future WNBA player? For this Cyclone team that has struggled at times to find an identity in the post, it could be a tough challenge.

But Ellis seems to have a plan … just keep it simple.

“I think the key to defending big players like that is just to keep them out [of] the lane,” Ellis said. “Just use my strength to my advantage and just push her out [of] the lane and not let her catch the ball so easily.”

Ellis is a full four inches shorter than Gardner, yet will still likely be defending Gardner when Ellis comes off the bench for starting center Bryanna Fernstrom.

But Ellis doesn’t seem too worried about guarding a future professional player. She knows that if the post players can keep working together like they have been, they’ll be fine.

“Like coach said, she’s a good pro player,” Ellis said. “I think with us, we’ve been doing pretty good guarding the post players inside and out, I think we just need to keep doing that in order to stop her.

The matchup will tip at 7 p.m. Jan. 28 at Hilton Coliseum, with the Cyclones looking to remain undefeated on their home court.

But with the team rapidly closing the gap to the top of the conference standings, this matchup could be a good opportunity to gain some ground. But with a busy week ahead for the Cyclones, Fennelly is hoping his team can find that extra kick they need.

“We need to really get after it,” Fennelly said. “We have nine straight days, so we need to be smart about how we practice and prepare. It’s a week that we really, really need to find that extra gear that’s sometimes hard to find this time of year.”