IU goes on the road to face No. 19 Buckeyes

After splitting a pair of hard-fought conference games at Assembly Hall, the IU women’s basketball team will hit I-70 and travel east to take on the No. 19 Ohio State Buckeyes today. The Hoosiers (9-6, 2-1) will face perhaps their toughest test of the young Big Ten season in the Buckeyes (11-3, 2-1). \nThe Buckeyes’ big star is freshman center Jantel Lavender, who averages 16.3 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, good for fourth and second in the conference, respectively. She has also led the team in scoring and rebounding in six of its 14 games. \nHowever, with talented Ohio guards Marscilla Packer and Ashlee Trebilcock, IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said the Hoosiers will have to play loose if they want to win their first game in Columbus since 2002. \n“We’re going there with nothing to lose, and we’re going to play the game as if we have nothing to lose,” Legette-Jack said after practice Wednesday.\nDespite the loss of current New York Liberty center Jessica Davenport, Legette-Jack said the Buckeyes might be even more dangerous because more players are involved in the offense. \n“Now, they’ve got all these weapons that they hadn’t used last year, and they’re able to use them a little bit more,” Legette-Jack said. \nSophomore combo guard Jamie Braun leads the attack for the Hoosiers, averaging 13.6 points per game. She went for 19 in the Hoosiers’ win Sunday against Illinois. Junior forward Whitney Thomas has also been a rock for IU in the paint this season. She’s scoring 11.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, and her 3.47 offensive rebounds per game currently rank her first in the Big Ten. \nAgainst Illinois, the Hoosiers had to fight from behind for much of the second half before sealing the game with a 26-11 run in the last seven-and-a-half minutes. \nLegette-Jack called Ohio State – the unanimous preseason pick to win the Big Ten – the “elephant” of the conference. Braun said she and her teammates are ready for the challenge of facing the Big Ten’s only ranked team, but they aren’t afraid. \n“We just have to go in there with the mindset that we are a really good team and anyone can beat anyone on a given night,” Braun said. \nBraun said the Hoosiers will look to get to the free-throw line often today, something they did with success Sunday against Illinois – IU shot 24-of-29 from the charity stripe in its win over the Illini. \nJunior guard/forward Kim Roberson said the Hoosiers will use tight team defense to crack the Buckeyes’ talented offense. So far this season, that strategy has worked because the Hoosiers sit right in the middle of the conference in scoring defense, but lead the Big Ten in steals per game with 9.27. \n“We know they have shooters and big post players, but we just have to stay disciplined and get into their shorts and slow them down,” Roberson said. “Hopefully our defense will turn into our offense.”\nThe Hoosiers’ schedule doesn’t let up after Ohio State, as they will then prepare for a trip to rival Purdue on Jan. 14. But with the parity present in the Big Ten this season – five teams are 2-1 in conference and two more are 2-2 – Legette-Jack said her team will never be caught looking ahead. \nFreshman guard Andrea McGuirt of Atlanta, Ga., will get her first collegiate start today after impressing in limited minutes against Illinois. McGuirt battled knee trouble earlier this year, but she has come on recently after working her way into the starting rotation.