IU lost to No. 21 Nebraska on Saturday afternoon in ?Assembly Hall.
IU (14-13, 4-12) was also far from the team it was a month ago.
Against Minnesota on Jan. 18, the Hoosiers led for 38 minutes before a couple of last-minute turnovers led to a four-point loss. The Hoosiers were in position to beat the No. 23 team in the country and couldn’t pull off the upset.
There were regrets.
IU Coach Teri Moren blamed it on lack of game management from the sideline and young players making young-player mistakes. Moren said she could’ve taken more timeouts to help walk her team through a situation it hadn’t been in. The loss demonstrated to IU the importance of playing every single possession for 40 ?minutes.
Saturday, IU got the same result as it did against Minnesota on Jan. 18 — the same result it has 12 times in 16 tries during the Big Ten ?season.
But there were no regrets.
“I think we definitely fought for the full 40 minutes,” freshman guard Jess Walter said. “I really felt like we were all playing for each other tonight.”
The Hoosiers trailed by 10 points for the majority of the second half, but it never seemed the game was fully out of reach. Nebraska committed 15 turnovers in the game, giving IU chance after chance to make a run.
With 1:32 to play, freshman guard Jess Walter made 1-of-2 free throws to bring IU within six. On the ensuing possession, they forced Nebraska into a shot clock violation, and Walter scored again on the other end.
Walter, who had 16 points, was then forced to foul with just 29 seconds to go. Two Nebraska free throws pushed the Husker lead to six.
“We got three freshmen, two sophomores going down the stretch,” Moren said, “and what a tremendous experience it is for those kids to have to go through that game.”
Nebraska, on the other hand, had all four of its ?seniors on the court.
Trailing 65-59, the ?Hoosiers used an Amanda Cahill layup and a Larryn Brooks 3-pointer — one of her five from beyond the arc — to go on a 5-0 run.
“I don’t think there was a moment out there that we weren’t playing hard for each other,” said Brooks, who scored a team-high 17 points.
IU had to foul again with 12 seconds to play. Nebraska guard Natalie Romeo, who hit both free throws on the previous possession, hit another pair to make it 67-64.
This time, Moren had no timeouts left.
All the Hoosiers could manage was a last-second heave from freshman guard Tyra Buss that missed the basket entirely. The buzzer sounded as the ball bounced on the baseline.
“Anyone can go back at the end of the game and say, ‘We could change this, we could’ve got that possession back,’” Brooks said. “But we don’t regret anything. We played really hard tonight, and that’s all we can ask for.”
It was IU’s final game of the season in Assembly Hall.
Moren talked after the game about a defensive struggle. They lacked the size and depth in the post they needed to contain 6-foot-2 forward Emily Cady, who had 22 points and 12 rebounds. They had the same communication problems they had all season — as they doubled Cady, they weren’t getting back out to guard perimeter shooters. Nebraska got to the free throw line twice as much as the Hoosiers did.
The list went on.
“They’re getting us back in the game going down the stretch, making plays,” Moren said. “Let’s not hang our heads. Let’s be excited about what the future holds. ?Certainly, it’s bright.
