Seniors seek elusive Big Ten victory against Wisconsin in final home game

With senior night in effect, the IU women’s basketball players hope to provide the seniors something they haven’t experienced during their final season in Bloomington: a Big Ten victory.

IU (5-22, 0-14) will battle the Wisconsin Badgers (8-18, 4-10) at 7 p.m. Thursday in Assembly Hall to go for that victory. IU Coach Felisha Legette-Jack said she knows what it would mean for her seniors.

“It would be really huge,” she said. “They’ve really been fighting and really been working hard with no results. On their last day to shine, it would be a really cool blessing to have it be a winning situation.”

With their last regular season game at No. 22 Purdue on Sunday and the Big Ten tournament coming the following weekend, this will be the seniors’ last home game of their collegiate careers.

The honored seniors include guard Alisha Goodwin and forward Danilsa Andujar. Senior forward Georgie Jones will not be honored because she is applying for a medical redshirt at the end of the season. She suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament on Dec. 1 at Virginia.

Andujar is the only senior who has been in Bloomington for four years. Goodwin and Jones both transferred to IU after their sophomore years. Goodwin came from Jefferson College, and Jones left Marquette University.

Legette-Jack said in order to defeat Wisconsin, her team has to play better defense at the beginning of the game.

“We can’t sit back and allow people to show up and get down 15 or 12 points and then want to play,” she said. “We’ve got to play from the beginning. You can’t allow someone to get a lead on you. Then you have to fight so hard to cut that lead down, and then there’s no more room to try to take over that lead because you use all your energy trying to catch back up.”

IU will be without its leading scorer for the year, junior guard Jasmine McGhee. Legette-Jack said McGhee’s foot had been bothering her for the past few games.

McGhee sat out Sunday and was labeled day to day. Earlier this week, she was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her foot. She will now sit out the remainder of the season.

The Hoosiers will look to junior forward Aulani Sinclair to take on the scoring load. With 12.4 points per game, Sinclair trails only McGhee’s 12.6 average and has recently caught fire.

In the past three games, Sinclair has led the team in scoring, averaging 19 points while shooting 42.1 percent from behind the 3-point arc and 48.9 percent overall.

“She’s definitely stepped up,” sophomore guard Andrea Newbauer said. “Jasmine was a great scorer for us. With another person out, it just gives someone else the opportunity to step up, and that’s what we need.”

Newbauer said a win on senior night would be huge for everyone.

“It would mean a lot to us and also definitely the seniors,” she said. “Just to have a good memory to send them away for their last home game.”