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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

IU looking for second consecutive home win Monday night

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Every time IU women’s basketball has won a Big Ten game this season the Hoosiers have followed up their winning performance with a loss.

A win at Penn State was followed by a nationally televised loss to Ohio State, and a home victory against Minnesota preceded a defeat at the hands of Michigan. Now, the Hoosiers are a few days removed from beating Purdue to even up their conference record at 3-3. With Penn State visiting IU Monday at 7 p.m. for the teams’ second matchup of the season, junior guard Tyra Buss said she knows how important it is to string consecutive wins together.

“Last game against Purdue was like our bounce-back game, and we got that win, and now we’re just going to keep rolling with it,” Buss said. “These next couple games are big for us. Once we got that first win against Purdue, I think we’re ready to just keep rolling.”

The Hoosiers beat the Nittany Lions on the road to begin the Big Ten schedule Dec. 28 behind a blistering 57-percent 3-point field goal percentage. Penn State sophomore guard Teniya Page scored 26 points in the game, and IU Coach Teri Moren said stopping Page will once again be a top priority. Senior guard Alexis Gassion will draw the defensive assignment as she usually does against the opponent’s best player.

In terms of team defense, Moren said the Hoosiers might throw several different looks at Penn State. She said her main priority will be trying to catch the Nittany Lions off guard by switching up the defense at different points in the game.

“All their guards can shoot it, and Teniya Page is just on a different level,” Moren said. “It’s just about trying to keep them off-balance and not allowing them to get comfortable with anything. That’s why you change it up.”

Page is averaging 18.7 points per game this season and is the only Penn State player to average more than 30 minutes per game. IU counters Page’s backcourt scoring with Buss, who also scored 26 points in the previous meeting between the two teams. On Thursday night against Purdue Buss scored 18 points and played all 40 minutes.

Buss said there is plenty to take away from the film of the last game between the two teams but also said the fact this game is at home means the Nittany Lions will only be more motivated.

“I think Penn State will watch a lot of film too, and they’ll know our tendencies a lot better, they’ll know our plays a lot better,” Buss said. “We beat them at their place, so they’re going to want to come in and fight in our place.”

The Nittany Lions have won their last two games against Wisconsin and Nebraska by a combined 47 points. Moren said it is a 
different Penn State team from the one the Hoosiers saw in late December because the confidence and performance levels of the Nittany Lions have both 
risen in recent weeks.

“They’re playing better,” Moren said. “Just like we have, I think we’ve gotten better and I think they have as well. I look for it to be an incredible matchup because their guard play is so strong.”

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