Fresh off big win, IU travels to Michigan State

Fresh off a marathon 80-77 win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers, the IU women’s basketball team will leave the chilly confines of Bloomington for even cooler pastures in East Lansing, Mich.\nOn Sunday, the Hoosiers will look to match blows with Michigan State, a team once recognized as one of the conference’s toughest.\nThis year, however, “parity” is the word in the Big Ten, with four teams bunched together with four conference wins and only Ohio State in the top 25.\nFacing the Spartans, IU will have to find a way to stop sophomore center Alyssa DeHaan, who at 6-foot-9 registers as the tallest player in the Big Ten. She also leads her team in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 15.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game going into Thursday night’s action. \nFreshman forward Kalisha Keane is second in both categories, scoring 13.2 points per game while grabbing 6.9 boards each contest.\nThe Spartans youth doesn’t stop on the stat sheet. Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant is in her first year at East Lansing. \nThat apparent lack of experience hasn’t boded well for the Spartans this season, as they stand at just 10-8 and 2-4 in the Big Ten. \nLeading the attack for the Hoosiers will be sophomore guard Jamie Braun, who continues this season to do a little bit of everything for IU. Braun averages 14.4 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game. She also dishes out 3.5 assists per game from her starting point guard slot, and ranked third on the team in steals with 37.\nJunior forward Whitney Thomas has been a force inside for the Hoosiers as well this year. The Bloomington native is averaging 12 points and 9.6 rebounds per game and was tied for the team lead in steals with 39. She ranked third in the Big Ten in rebounding coming into Thursday’s action, and she posted one of her best performances of the year in the Hoosiers’ Jan. 14 win over rival Purdue, finishing with 17 points and grabbing 18 boards, half the total of Purdue’s entire team. She also snagged 17 rebounds in the double-overtime win against Minnesota.