Three of women’s college basketball’s best players will be in Iowa City on Wednesday when the No. 16 Hawkeyes take on the No. 10 Cyclones at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 6 p.m. More than 12,000 fans are expected to attend.

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano, along with Iowa State’s Ashley Joens, were all on the Wade Trophy preseason watch list. The Wade Trophy is presented annually to the best women’s NCAA Division 1 basketball player as voted on by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

Offensively, Iowa State has a slightly different philosophy from Iowa. While Iowa relies on its players to make reads to create shots, Clark said, Iowa State opts to run several set plays.

The 6-1 Cyclones’ sole loss came to North Carolina, 73-64. Iowa State has a similar starting lineup to last year when it beat Iowa in Ames but has added firepower with the addition of senior Stephanie Soares. The 6-foot-6 post spent the first three seasons of her college career at Master’s University, an NAIA school.

As a Mustang, she won NAIA Division I player of the year twice. Her dominance has continued at Iowa State.

“She’s got a great range, can drive from almost anywhere on the floor,” Czinano said. “I mean, that’s just not really something that you see a lot of times in the Big Ten … that’s something new and unique that I’ll have to play against, but I’m really looking forward to it.”

Soares is averaging 16.3 points and nine rebounds per game on the year. Czinano, who stands at 6-foot-4, averages 16 points and 7.3 rebounds. Like Czinano, Soares is a high percentage shooter, making about 57 percent of her field goals to Czinano’s 67.

The Iowa center said the talented bigs she faced early in the year have helped her prepare for Soares and grow as a player.

While Soares has proven to be a great addition for the Cyclones, Joens is their top player. Head coach Lisa Bluder said Joens is an all-around great player, able to drive to the basket and draw fouls, but also hurt opponents from the arc, and crash the boards.

“When I heard she was coming back for a super senior year, I wasn’t real thrilled with that, just like they probably weren’t real thrilled that Monika came back,” Bluder said. “So, I mean, she’s a tremendous player, incredibly gifted.”

Joens, an Iowa City High School graduate, is averaging just under 20 points per game and is the Big 12’s third-leading rebounder, despite being a guard.

On the other side, Clark leads the nation in points per game with 28.8. Clark most recently earned her seventh career triple-double on Sunday, breaking the Big Ten record.

RELATED: Caitlin Clark breaks Big Ten triple-double record as Iowa women’s basketball blows out Wisconsin

The West Des Moines native said she spent her childhood going to basketball games at both Iowa State and Iowa and said Iowa State was third on her list behind Notre Dame when she decided which school to attend.

“I can still list a bunch of players that I grew up watching that play for all the schools in our state, but I think it just speaks to how good women’s basketball is in our state,” Clark said.