The final score of IU’s 78-54 win against Wisconsin wasn’t indicative of how close the game was.
On paper the Hoosiers should have had an easy time with the Badgers, who sit in last place and are winless in the Big Ten, on Sunday, even with the game being played in Madison, Wisconsin.
That, however, was hardly the case. The Hoosiers led for more than 30 minutes, but failed to pull away until the fourth quarter when they were finally able to assert their will.
Junior guard Tyra Buss led the Hoosiers with a game-high 19 points, and IU tallied its third consecutive win and its first in the Kohl Center since 2009.
“Every game is difficult, and we realize that,” IU assistant coach Glenn Box said on the postgame show on WHCC 105.1 FM. “Yes, they were winless coming in, but we knew they had some fight. We knew they were going to come out and compete.”
The Badgers got out to an early lead, but the Hoosiers were able to combat that with a 12-1 run to take control of things. Buss had eight points in the first quarter but didn’t score for the rest of the half. IU took a 10-point lead into the second quarter when Wisconsin started to heat up from the field.
The Hoosiers went through a 1-of-5 stretch in the second quarter that was matched by a 5-of-6 mark from the Badgers. IU entered halftime with just a six-point lead.
“They played pretty well after the initial start of the first half,” Box said of Wisconsin. “Second half we grinded them down a little bit. We had some smart defensive plays that triggered some things for us that certainly helped.”
The Hoosiers got a balanced scoring effort Sunday. Junior forward Amanda Cahill, Buss, senior guard Alexis Gassion and senior forward Jenn Anderson all tallied double-digit scoring performances. The bench, on the other hand, had a tough day from the field. They contributed just six points and made just one basket before the last two minutes of the fourth quarter.
In the end, IU finished shooting 48 percent from the field. From behind the arc, the Hoosiers shot just 18 percent. Wisconsin went more than five minutes without scoring in the fourth quarter, and the Hoosiers outscored the Badgers 21-3 in the final 10 minutes.
“Thank goodness we responded,” IU Coach Teri Moren said after the game. “At that point you just rely on your veterans to go make plays and then to dig down defensively and I thought we did a much better job in the fourth of defending better.”
The road now gets a bit tougher for IU. Its next matchup is Thursday in East Lansing, Michigan, against Michigan State. The Hoosiers are now 5-3 in the Big Ten, and with the Spartans sitting at 4-4 in conference play, it will be a prime opportunity for IU to separate itself from the middle of the standings.
“We know that they are very, very good,” Box said of Michigan State. “They are led by a very good guard, and they have so much talent. They are just a good team. We know that, and we’ll be prepared.”
