Season comes to an early end with heartbreaking loss to James Madison

The IU women’s basketball team did not picture its season ending this way.\nA heartbreaking 86-81 overtime loss to James Madison in the second round of the WNIT brought an up-and-down season to a premature end. \n“What a year,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “We certainly had bigger plans for this in our second year here. We certainly believed that there was more basketball for us to play.”\nThe Hoosiers had plans of an NCAA Tournament appearance, and after wins against top-20 opponents West Virginia and Ohio State and a victory over Purdue on the road, there certainly was a possibility of getting there. \nBut IU sputtered down the stretch, losing four of its final seven games including a 30-point loss at Wisconsin and a 15-point loss at Minnesota, essentially eliminating the possibility of an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.\nThrough everything, however, the Hoosiers stayed positive and rallied around the energy of their coach. They never hung their heads when they did not receive an NCAA Tournament bid, and they were ready to play against James Madison – their first WNIT game after a first-round bye.\n“It just didn’t come out our way tonight, but we certainly did everything we could to come out on top,” Legette-Jack said. \nOn Saturday night, IU simply could not find a way to slow down James Madison’s Tamera Young and Dawn Evans. Evans scored 38 points and Young added 30, giving the two players 68 of the team’s 86 points. \n“We know that we don’t give two players that kind of point production,” Legette-Jack said. “We knew that they were their go-to players, but we struggled with them.”\nAfter a 19-win season last year, the Hoosiers finished this season with an 18-15 record and a 10-8 Big Ten record in Legette-Jack’s second season. IU’s young team accomplished a lot this year, leaving Legette-Jack plenty to build upon.\n“Their effort,” Legette-Jack answered when asked what she was most proud of. “We never quit. We never blamed anyone for our losses. We just tried to compete.”\nShe also spoke highly of the Hoosiers’ effort to play for higher causes. IU hosted “Think Pink” to raise breast cancer awareness, they visited children’s hospitals and they welcomed a woman fighting heart disease into the locker room for a game.\n“These kids stand for so much more than the game,” Legette-Jack said. “For them to decide to play for cancer awareness, soldiers in Iraq, children in the hospital, heart disease – these kids are thinking outside the box.” \nEven after a disappointing end to this season, the teary eyes of the players and the coach could not hide the optimism for the future.\nIU will lose only one player in senior guard Nikki Smith and will return its top four scorers along with six freshmen from this year, leaving the team with a solid nucleus for next year.\n“Nikki was a great player for us, but we still have good players coming up and we’re returning everyone else, so I feel we have a bright future,” freshman guard Jori Davis said.