Braun’s big second half leads IU to first Big Ten win

IU women’s basketball coach Felisha Legette-Jack preached solid, attacking basketball in the wake of a 55-49 home loss to rival Purdue last Thursday. Her players answered Sunday, getting to the basket and the free-throw line – especially late in the game – in their 70-62 win over Illinois in Bloomington.\nThe Hoosiers took 29 free throws, making 24, all the while holding Illinois – the Big Ten’s leading free-throw shooting team – to a mere 5-of-7 from the charity stripe.\n“Our whole motivation,” Legette-Jack said, “is to be in attack mode. In the last game, we saw a zone and were held hostage by a zone. Our thought process today and going forward is we are not going to be held hostage by anything anymore.”\nIU closed the game with a frantic run that saw them using pressure defense and solid rebounding to come from seven down to win by eight. In the last 7:33 of the game, the Hoosiers outscored the Illini 26-11.\nSophomore guard Jamie Braun led IU with 19 points, 14 of them coming in the second half. Braun, who scored just one point against Purdue, said Legette-Jack asked her to attack the basket more Sunday.\n“I think this game was a lot different, because I actually had an attack mentality,” Braun said. “It just opened up a lot of openings for me and my teammates.”\nBraun shot 6-of-14 from the field – including 3-of-5 from behind the arc. The sophomore also made all four of her free throws.\nJunior forward Whitney Thomas filled the stat sheet as well, scoring 16 and grabbing 12 rebounds. She also had four assists and led the Hoosiers in first-half points with 10, scoring on a mix of midrange jumpers and layups.\nThough Illinois out-rebounded the Hoosiers 38-28, IU held an 8-2 advantage during their end-of-game run.\nIllinois sophomore forward Jenna Smith, who scored 20 points and led the Big Ten in scoring at the day’s beginning, said she thought the Hoosiers outhustled her team at the end of the game. She recalled moments in the game when IU players hit the floor for loose balls, and none of her teammates followed suit.\nIllinois coach Jolette Law refused to admit that fatigue played a part in her team’s loss, even though only six Illini saw more than three minutes of action in the contest.\n“I think Indiana played a very intense game,” Law said. “They played 40 minutes. They didn’t let up.”\nIU used a 15-6 run to close out the first half with a 29-21 advantage, but the Illini answered with a 12-2 run to start the second half to pull ahead of the Hoosiers.\nThomas said after the game that Legette-Jack made rebounding a priority for her team to turn the game around. She also said she thought Illinois’ fatigue was a factor toward the end of the game.\n“Coach Jack just said that we have to block out and hold our block out,” Thomas said. “They started getting tired, and in the end, they weren’t going after it as much, and we were able to get the rebounds.”\nIU’s pressure defense bothered the Illini repeatedly in the first half. The visitors turned the ball over nine times in the opening frame, counted among them several shot clock violations. Illinois almost had two more violations at the end of the first half.\nThe Hoosiers defensive tenacity forced Illinois to turn the ball over 17 times to IU’s 11. As a result, IU held a 24-4 advantage in points off turnovers.\n“They just did a lot of team things,” Legette-Jack said, “and one of the team things was taking care of the ball.”