IU women's basketball topples Northwestern

With five days until Christmas, the IU women's basketball team were in the giving spirit.

The Hoosiers (8-2, 1-0) handed Northwestern its ninth consecutive loss against the Hoosiers with an 81-57 throttling of the Wildcats in their Big Ten opener.

The win was IU’s seventh straight, tying the team's longest streak since the 2000-01 season.

SLIDESHOW: IU-Northwestern

The Hoosiers starters scored 71 of their 81 points, led by senior forward Whitney Thomas with 20 points. She is now 16 points away from 1,000 career points at IU.

Thomas, who had struggled from the floor her last two games, finished 8-14 and hit all six of her free throws. Thomas credits a recent talk with IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack for her play on the offensive side.

“I spoke to coach Jack and she told me I needed to start to play free and I took that to heart,” Thomas said. “I just went out their and took what they gave me.”

The Hoosiers are now off for nine days when they will travel to East Lansing, Mich., to take on Michigan State. Legette-Jack said she isn’t worried about her team getting out of game shape in during the Christmas Break.
 
“I’m not worried about these young ladies,” she said. “They will find open gyms and play pick up (games). Also the seniors will be doing a great job making phone calls to everybody making sure everybody is working out. We aren’t looking at it as time off. When we come back the 26th we will be ready for battle again.”