IU womens basketball tops Showtime Skins in final exhibition game

The IU women’s basketball team concluded its exhibition schedule Tuesday night at Assembly Hall with an 80-37 win over the Showtime Skins, a touring team from Australia. \nIU opened the game on a 19-0 run and never slowed down, jumping to a 53-13 lead at halftime. \n“It’s exciting to see that we came out so focused,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “I thought our first half was fantastic. We came out there and didn’t care who was playing against us. We went out there and decided that we were going to make \na statement.”\nAfter an impressive first half, Legette-Jack said the Hoosiers struggled to maintain the same intensity in the second half.\n“The second half, I think that we looked at the score and played to (their) level,” she said. “We tried to stay focused on just playing basketball, but it was really difficult to see that score and keep our focus intense.”\nSophomore guard Jamie Braun led IU in scoring with 18 points. Junior forward Amber Jackson added 14 points, and freshman forward Ebony Jackson tallied 11. \nFor Amber Jackson, a transfer from San Jose State, it was a relief to have the nerves of her first game at IU \nbehind her.\n“After the first game, I made it a point to not put so much pressure on myself,” she said. “Last game was my first game, and I was, in a sense, very nervous. Tonight I felt relaxed and felt like myself.”\nThe IU defense harassed the Skins for most of the game, forcing 29 turnovers. Ebony Jackson, freshman guard Whitney Lindsay, senior guard Nikki Smith and junior guard/forward Kim Roberson each recorded three \nsteals apiece. \n“On defense, that’s where I’m comfortable,” Lindsay said. “I know that I play with a lot of intensity, and I think that really helped our team tonight.”\nDespite the defensive statistics, Legette-Jack saw plenty of room for improvement on the defensive end. \n“Our defense has to define us,” she said. “Tonight, their shots weren’t falling. I don’t think that we did a good enough job to stop them from actually scoring, but we’ll get better.”\nAnother cause for concern for Legette-Jack was team rebounding. \n“Having this team that wasn’t really tall and wasn’t really strong out-rebound us is really going to be something that we look at tomorrow in film and certainly is going to be something we work on tomorrow in practice,” she said. \nWith a short week of practice before Friday’s regular season opener against Albany, Legette-Jack said the emphasis in practice will be on defense and boxing out.\nFor the players, the Albany game shouldn’t be much different from the two exhibition games.\n“We’re going to go in and work hard and keep the level of intensity up,” Amber Jackson said. “We have to play unselfish basketball, everyone work hard and do what they’re supposed to do.”