Team wins 5 straight

With the help of a lights out shooting performance from beyond the arc from freshman guard Nicole Bell, the IU women’s basketball team (5-1) defeated the IPFW Mastadons (2-3) Monday night 64-47 at Assembly Hall, giving the team its best start since the 2006-07 season, when they also began 5-1.

Bell scored 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting with all four of her threes coming in the first half. Junior guard Andrea Newbauer got the start, but after Bell caught fire, IU Coach Curt Miller decided to leave her in.

Bell said she hadn’t been in a zone like this since high school.

“Not at Indiana but in high school, so it just kinda felt good to finally get my shot going because it’s been off for the rest of the games of the season so far. It felt good,” she said.

It was a tough shooting night for the Mastodons, who finished 33.3 percent (18-of-54) from the field and just 19 percent (4-of-21) on threes.

“We mucked it up tonight in stretches,” Miller said. “IPFW - when they get their three going and they get flying around with all that weave action…they can make the game look pretty in a hurry, draining threes. We did a pretty good job guarding the arc.”

IU’s intense ball pressure was evident from the start. IPFW worked it around on its first possession but had to settle for a last second heave from guard Amanda Hyde.

With 11:28 left in the half, IU forced another deep three from Hyde that resulted in an airball and shot clock violation. The Hoosiers entered the locker room up 38-20.

The Mastodons did not go quietly, putting together an 11-2 run between the 16:50 and 11:23 minute marks in the second half, cutting the lead to single digits, 47-36.

Senior forward Linda Rubene stopped the bleeding with 10:53 left in the game when she converted an and-one with a reverse layup and free throw to make it 48-36.

“A couple of those baskets were big to stem the tide,” Miller said. “An 18-point lead gets down to single digits in a hurry then it’s anyone game.”

Senior forward Aulani Sinclair led all scorers with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting (4-of-9 from three), but was either dead on or way off, chucking up a couple of airballs from beyond the arc.

“Overall it was a kind of crazy shooting night for me shooting-wise, but my teammates did a great job whenever I did miss it long to get the rebounds and put it back up for it,” Sinclair said.

IPFW would only get as close as 12 points the rest of the way and just couldn’t make up for its lackluster shooting performance early.

Hyde led the team with 11 points but struggled with her shot, finishing 5-of-15 from the field.

For the fourth straight game, Miller went with a smaller lineup that featured junior forward Milikia Taufa (6-foot-0) and Rubene (6-foot-3). Taufa scored four and grabbed eight rebounds while Rubene chipped in nine points.

McGhee put a late exclamation point on the win by cutting baseline and converting an and-one layup on the assist from Sinclair that made it 58-42 to go with just less than four minutes left. McGhee finished with a double-double with 12 points (6-of-10 shooting) and 10 rebounds.

“I just tried to stay focused,” she said. “I wasn’t just really focusing on shooting, but just all-around playing defense, and yeah, my shot’s off been off a little bit, but like I said just staying focused.”