Now, IU is 3-9 in conference play and has lost six of its past seven games. When losing becomes that commonplace, little victories and consolation prizes come into play.
So when IU (13-10, 3-9) only lost 78-70 on Sunday in a rematch with Ohio State, it was a good sign in the development a young team, IU Coach Teri Moren said.
“We played much better here than we did at our place several months ago,” Moren said.
The first half consisted of lead changes and back-and-forth basketball as IU only trailed by one at halftime. The Hoosiers shot 7-of-11 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes, and Moren contributed some of the success to slowing down the tempo. In the Jan. 8 blowout, Ohio State ran all over IU.
“There’s no question that (tempo) was important,” Moren said. Her halftime speech was primarily about continuing to slow down the tempo and not let them run their transition offense.
In the second half, shots were not falling as easily, especially from deep. The difference between Sunday and some other IU losses was that the team kept fighting throughout the contest.
The deficit was as large as 13 points, but the Hoosiers stayed focused and were never completely out of the game. Moren said the team showed more effort and engagement than it did in last Thursday’s loss to Northwestern.
“I thought we did a lot of good things and I want to give our kids credit for coming out for 40 minutes,” Moren said.
Despite shooting well in the first half, the strategy was to avoid shooting too much as IU did in the first meeting between IU and Ohio State. The Hoosiers shot 2-of-18 from deep Jan. 8.
“One of the things that we did in our place that we didn’t want to do this afternoon was live and die by the 3-point shot,” Moren said.
IU took five more 3-pointers Sunday than it did Jan. 8, but that stemmed more from the looks the team was getting. Moren wanted a balanced attack and wanted to get to the free-throw line more often. She was not satisfied with getting to the line 12 fewer times than Ohio State.
Losing is never ideal, and Moren said the outcome was not what they wanted. Regardless, the Hoosiers displayed more discipline than in past losses.
“We kind of just keep chipping away and are making the progress that our staff had hoped for,” Moren said.
