Iowa @ Iowa State preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 8, 2016 ) Iowa State 64, Iowa 78

Iowa State hosts Iowa in the annual Cy-Hawk series on Thursday. The Cyclones, who are coming off a 94-80 victory against Northern Illinois on Monday, have won five straight games after starting the season with back-to-back losses and hope to acquire bragging rights in the state of Iowa for the next year by avenging a 78-64 defeat to the Hawkeyes last season.

Iowa State has won the last seven home meetings in the series, but has dropped two straight matchups with Big Ten opponents, including an 80-76 setback to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year. Iowa suffered its third consecutive defeat following a 77-64 loss to Indiana on Monday. The slumping Hawkeyes have been held to an average of 64 points during their losing skid and hopes someone can step up and kickstart a once-prolific offense, which had scored 85 or more points four times in six games in the month of November. Iowa hasn't knocked off the Cyclones on the road in over 13 years and hopes to notch back-to-back wins in the series for the first time since 2000-01.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2

ABOUT IOWA (4-5): Brady Ellingson scored 16 points and Jack Nunge added 12 and six rebounds in the loss to Indiana. Jordan Bohannon started the second half on the bench along with Isaiah Moss as Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery tried to send a message to the sophomore point guard, who committed five of the team's 18 turnovers and was limited to seven points on 2-of-8 shooting from the floor. "Guys tried to do it on their own," McCaffery told reporters. "We didn't move the ball in the first half and he's part of the reason and Isaiah struggled in that area…and that's unfortunate."

ABOUT IOWA STATE (5-2): Freshman guard Lindell Wigginton led the way with a career-high 28 points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists in the win against Northern Illinois. "He's a talented kid and he can score," Iowa State coach Steve Prohm told reporters. "He can be a very good player here." Donovan Jackson drained six 3-pointers en route to 24 points while Cameron Lard added 14 points as the Cyclones had only eight available players against the Huskies with Jakolby Long (concussion) and Zoran Talley (leg) sidelined with injuries.

TIP-INS

1. Iowa State has won six of the last eight meetings with Iowa.

2. Wigginton has scored over 20 points in each of his last two games.

3. Iowa has committed 50 total turnovers during its losing skid.

PREDICTION: Iowa State 84, Iowa 81