Women stifle Northwestern attack

When Northwestern rallied to within two points of the lead to begin the second half, the IU women’s basketball team leaders did not flinch.

Three players scored in double digits and fought for rebounds on the offensive end as the Hoosiers (11-8, 4-4) held off the Wildcats (12-7, 3-5) 61-55 in Assembly Hall.

“It really took all of us to beat a very good Northwestern team,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said.

Senior guard Jamie Braun led IU in scoring with 18 points and pulled down four offensive rebounds.

Junior forward Hope Elam scored 15 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Junior guard Jori Davis recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, five of which came on the offensive end.

Legette-Jack never expected anything less of the Hoosiers’ three most productive players this season.

“They had a sense of focus, and they knew that when the game got tight, they had to come through,” she said. “They understand that, when it’s our time to be called upon, we have to step up, and we have to be big.”

Northwestern ended the game shooting a 37.9 field goal percentage to IU’s 34.4 percent, but the Wildcats managed little in the first half, shooting a modest 25 percent from the field.

“I thought the first half was the worst half of basketball we’ve played all year,” Northwestern coach Joe McKeown said. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well and certainly didn’t breathe on Indiana from a rebounding standpoint. To me, that was the difference in the game.”

The one bright spot for the Wildcats was center Amy Jaeschke, whose 17 points helped her become the first player in Northwestern history to top 1,000 points in a career.

In what ended as a low-scoring, low-percentage shooting half, IU led by as many as 14 and never trailed. Northwestern only made eight shots from 32 attempts en route to a 28-21 halftime advantage.

However, the Wildcats re-emerged from the locker room with a bang, scoring six consecutive points to open the second half and cut the Hoosiers’ lead to two.

After the two teams traded points back and forth to a 34-31 IU lead with just over 12 minutes to play, Elam, who managed just two points in the first half, came alive.
The junior hit two 3-pointers and assisted another in a span of two minutes, sparking the Hoosiers to a 43-33 lead with 10 minutes to play.

“(Northwestern) tried to take Jori and Jamie out of the game and, well, they forgot about Hope,” Legette-Jack said.

Elam said she took pride in coming through late after a slow start.

“The good thing about our team is that if one person isn’t hitting, we have other people who can step up and hit, which my teammates did (in the first half),” she said. “Second half, I just got into a rhythm and everything connected.”

Also key to IU’s strong push late in the game was Davis’ aggressive rebounding. Her 12 boards were just two shy of her career-high, and her five offensive rebounds led all players.

“Coaches expect a lot from me,” Davis said. “My rebounding has to get up, and I’ve just been trying to improve ... and let the scoring stay consistent. Everything else has to get better in order for me to be a better player.”

The Hoosiers worked the clock for the remainder of the second half before forcing Northwestern into foul trouble and sealing the 61-55 victory.

IU hits the road this weekend for a rematch with Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Sunday.