Women's basketball can't steal 1st from Buckeyes

COLUMBUS, Ohio ­­– The IU women’s basketball team came out strong against No. 14 Ohio State, silencing the home crowd with a 26-17 lead with 4:26 remaining in the first half.

But the next two and a half minutes weren’t as kind to the Hoosiers – the Buckeyes went on a 7-0 run, and they continued to apply pressure. Ohio State went into halftime with a lead, 32-29, and never relinquished it.

IU lost 59-51 Sunday.

An IU win would have catapulted the Hoosiers to first place in the Big Ten, but the loss sent them to a two-team tie for third place.

Both teams played well on defense with a combined 39 turnovers in the game. Shaky offense hurt the Hoosiers (15-5, 8-3), shooting 20-of-64 from the field for 31.3 percent and just 5-for-19 from beyond the 3-point arc. The Buckeyes (18-3, 9-1) shot 42.6 percent.

IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said their shortcoming on offense was a big factor in the game.

“I thought the offense was what we struggled with the most,” she said. “We are going to get back to Bloomington and work on how to put the ball in the hole.”

Point guard Jamie Braun said the pressure Ohio State applied made establishing any type of consistency on offense difficult.

“Their defense was really pressuring me as the point guard and our wings, so it was very hard to get in an offensive rhythm,” she said. “They played really good defensively. We just couldn’t find a way to get our offense going.”

The Buckeyes held a significant advantage on the inside as well. Their two post players, All-American candidate Jantel Lavender and Star Allen, combined for 38 of Ohio State’s 59 points.

The Hoosiers’ inside game suffered when senior Amber Jackson went to the bench with two fouls and 17:20 to go in the first half.

Legette-Jack said she did not expect Jackson to be limited to three minutes in the first half but had to deal with the situation and make adjustments.

“You just keep playing,” she said. “You can’t predict the game. That’s what the beauty of this game is. There is no prediction on whether your fighter is going to be out there the entire game.”

Senior Whitney Thomas scored 12 points in the first half for IU, but she didn’t score again the rest of the game. Thomas said being undersized hurt the team, especially going up against one of the best players in the conference in the post.

“We were there, they were just able to get shots over us,” Thomas said. “It shows there is a lot we need to work on, but we are going to get better.”

Legette-Jack said her team went away from its game plan against the Buckeyes and were not as aggressive as they should have been. She also said she does not expect a repeat performance.

“We felt the hands around us, and we saw the defense pressuring us and we conceded,” she said. “That won’t happen again.”

– IU Sports columnist Dave Leno contributed to this report.