Exhibition season ends with visit from down under

The IU women’s basketball team rounds out its short exhibition season tonight at 7 p.m. at Assembly Hall with a game against the Showtime Skins, an Australian touring team. IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack acknowledged that she has a young team this year, but she said she will be looking for improvement against the Skins. \n“I’d like to see us play with a certain type of intensity and passion,” Legette-Jack said. “I think we have pretty good players. I think we’re young, but I think we’re good.”\nLegette-Jack said she doesn’t know what to expect from the Skins, since the Hoosiers don’t have tape on Tuesday’s opponent. She said she expects them to be a shooting team, similar to the Hoosier Lady Stars, who scored 36 of their 49 points from 3-pointers. \nLegette-Jack said she liked the different perspective the Hoosier Lady Stars gave her team Saturday, because they gave the Hoosiers some looks that the team wasn’t ready for. She said it gave the team something to work on in practice. \nLegette-Jack said overall she was happy with her team’s play Saturday in their victory over the Hoosier Lady Stars. Leading the way for the Hoosiers that night was sophomore guard Jamie Braun, who led all Hoosiers with 17 points in her first game at the point for IU. Legette-Jack said she was “very pleased” with Braun’s performance. \n“(Braun) hadn’t played the point guard here yet,” Legette-Jack said. “She could be great.”\nBraun was slightly more critical about her performance after Saturday’s game, but overall, she said she thought things went well in her debut at the point. \n“I don’t think I did too bad in the first half, but in the second half, I got a little lackadaisical and turned the ball over,” Braun said. “But otherwise, I thought things went pretty well for the first game.”\nSaturday was also the debut for IU’s six freshmen, as well as Lydia Serfling , a junior walk-on from Bloomington. Guard Nikki Smith, the team’s lone senior and top returning scorer, said after Saturday’s game she was glad all the freshmen got a chance to play.\n“They absolutely will do anything to get better, and they just love it, and this is what they came here for – to play,” Smith said. \nSaturday was also the first appearance in an IU uniform for junior forward Amber Jackson, who transferred from San Jose State. Jackson finished with six points and five rebounds, and Legette-Jack said she knows those numbers will go up as the season progresses. \n“It’s been a long time since Amber played competitive basketball,” she said. “I think that the exhibitions are going to help her too. She’s going to have to let the game come to her a little bit.”\nLegette-Jack said she looks forward to coaching her team this season, and she challenged IU fans to come out and support the Hoosiers, “because eventually, this is the team that’s going to put a banner up.”\n“We’ve got a good group of kids, I tell you,” Legette-Jack said. “They play hard, and I said this before and I’m going to say this all season: Through the good times and bad times, this is a team that really will snatch your heart out of your chest and take it away. ... I hope this community can latch on now, and help us grow this great team. These are great kids.”