Neither game was ever particularly close. The Hoosiers fell to 1-3 in the Big Ten season with 14 games left. Sunday’s home game against a struggling Wisconsin team (6-9, 2-3) was going to be a big indicator of how the rest of the season would go.
“I told our kids this morning at shootaround we had to have some bounce back ability,” IU Coach Teri Moren said.
IU (12-4, 2-3) had that bounce back ability as it defeated ?Wisconsin 69-52 Sunday in Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers gained the lead with 14:40 to go in the first half and never let go.
After those two blowout losses, Moren mentioned the team struggled to rally after missing a lot of shots early in the game. On Sunday, IU got going early, which Moren said made the difference.
“The way we roll is, when we hit some shots, it does something,” Moren said. “To say we were calm today, I think it had a lot to do with that we were in our groove.”
The Hoosiers got the ball inside from the start, and that led to them getting to the foul line and opening up more good looks. IU shot ?12-of-13 from the line in the first half as they took a 43-30 lead at halftime.
Moren and sophomore Alexis Gassion both said there was a lack of effort and hunger against Ohio State and Purdue. Players would let up on fast break defense and teams ran all over them.
“Looking back, what disheartened me the most was our effort, our body language at times and kind of giving in to defeat,” Moren said. “That’s not going to be us.”
That was not the story against Wisconsin.
IU forced 21 turnovers and allowed only six fast break points.
There was a balance on offense for IU. The ball was moving around and everyone was getting looks. Seven players had between seven and 11 points, and nobody had more.
It was an offense by committee.
Because sophomore point guard Larryn Brooks didn’t start due to flu-like symptoms throughout the week, freshman guard Tyra Buss took the reigns at point and had 11 points to go with five assists.
Buss credited the team’s ball control as a key factor in the win. They had only two turnovers in the entire first half.
Sophomore guard Taylor Agler also did not start Sunday, as she twisted her ankle during the week and was unavailable to play.
Sophomore Alexis Gassion stepped in and collected 16 rebounds in her first start of the season.
Moren was happy with how the team stayed together and stayed resilient through the losses and the injuries.
In the past four games, IU has beaten Michigan State by 19, had two consecutive blowout losses and then beat Wisconsin by 17 Sunday. There seems to be no in-between for the Hoosiers. It has been either dominate or get ?dominated.
“This is a young basketball team,” Moren said. “And one of the things with young teams is we are going to be unpredictable.”
