Ranked teams have been Iowa women’s basketball’s nemesis this season.

First, No. 15 Ohio State broke the Hawkeyes 42-game home-win streak at Carver Hawkeye Arena on Jan. 13 in a two-point overtime loss.

Next, No. 23 Northwestern and No. 17 Indiana left Iowa City with wins, handing Iowa an unprecedented three losses on its home court.

No matter how close the Hawkeyes seem to get to get their first ranked win of the season, it never comes to fruition. But head coach Lisa Bluder said the Hawkeyes have been knocking on the door of ranked teams all season.

“We’ve been in every game,” Bluder said. “With Indiana, they’re a great basketball team, and with eight minutes to go, it’s tied. And we’ve been in that situation over and over again, and there’s really kind of two ways you can go. You can give up, and say ‘oh well, that’s the season,’ or you can keep working on your fundamentals and stay optimistic.”

Iowa has lost its past two games to ranked teams, falling to 10-6 on the season and 6-6 in the Big Ten, seventh in the conference standings.

But the Hawkeyes have a break from the rankings this week, and a chance to bounce back from its two-game losing skid at unranked Nebraska on Thursday.

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Nebraska is sixth place in the conference standings, sitting at 9-7 overall and 7-6 in Big Ten play. A win against the Cornhuskers is not only another notch in the win column for the Hawkeyes, but it could also make the difference for an NCAA Tournament bid.

“Certainly, when you’re looking at Nebraska and [Iowa], neck and neck in that spot in the middle of the Big Ten, it is a big game for the selection committee,” Bluder said. “They’re going to be looking at this game, and if there’s only one spot left for the Big Ten, they’re going to see.”

Junior center Monika Czinano will have a matchup at post on Thursday night against Nebraska’s 6-foot-5-inch center Kate Cain, who Bluder said is “the best shot blocker in the Big Ten.”

But Czinano emphasized the team effort in stopping Cain, and the Cornhuskers.

“[Cain’s] been really good for Nebraska all four years,” Czinano said. “I don’t really think of a game as a one-on-one battle, ever… I think everybody’s going to contribute to stopping every single person on that team, so we might have a duck-down from a guard to help stop her, I might have to help on a drive for one of the guards, that’s the culture and mentality that we have.”

Nebraska has home-court advantage in this contest. At Pinnacle Bank Arena, Nebraska has overtaken ranked Ohio State and Northwestern this season.

“This is a really important game for us, coming into it,” freshman point guard Caitlin Clark said. “They clearly play very well at home, they’re a great team, they’ve been playing well, so it’ll take everything out of us. This is no ‘gimmie’ for sure, and I think that’s every single night in the Big Ten, no matter who you’re playing, ranked or not.”

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, and the game will be aired on BTN.