Sophomore point guard Tyra Buss stood at the free-throw line with the fate of the Hoosiers’ game against Samford resting on her shoulders.
IU was down 52-50 with 11.1 seconds remaining in regulation, and Buss had just been fouled hard on a drive to the basket. IU hadn’t scored a field goal in 4:40, and Buss was now staring at the rim with Assembly Hall silent.
She put the ball up, and it floated silently toward the basket and fell in, making a splash of bright white net as it went. The crowd erupted for a short moment before going silent again.
Buss hit the second free throw to force overtime, and the Hoosiers would go on to defeat the Bulldogs, 65-56.
“Tyra Buss’ free throws there at the end were probably the biggest of her career here,” IU Coach Teri Moren said. “That was huge for us.”
The Hoosiers found a surge in offense in the third quarter, after entering the second half with a six-point deficit, ending with a 10-0 IU run that was capped with a Buss reverse layup to take a one-point lead in the fourth quarter.
The teams scored a combined 13 points in the final quarter.
After going 4:51 without a field goal in the fourth and only shooting 29 percent from the field throughout the entire game, IU went on to outscore Samford 13-4 in the five-minute overtime period to secure its seventh win of the season.
“I don’t know — you tell me,” sophomore forward Amanda Cahill said about the scoring drought in the fourth quarter. “We were just really struggling.”
IU missed 11 consecutive field goals going into overtime, but it was the free throws that contributed to a large part of its scoring, as 27 of its 65 points came from the line — after IU only recorded nine free-throw attempts against Indiana State on Tuesday night.
Even Buss, who scored a game-high 21 points, only made three field goals. The rest of her points came from 15 free throws.
“We’ve been working on free throw shooting,” Buss said. “Our percentage is not what it should be, so we’ve just really been working on free throws in practice. We’re good free throw shooters.”
Moren said after the near-loss to ISU on Tuesday that IU didn’t push the pace as quickly as she wanted it to, and she also stressed that it needed to get the ball into the post more often, get high percentage shots and reduce turnovers.
Though the shots weren’t falling for the Hoosiers early on, Moren said she told them to continue to attack the basket after they went 0-for-10 from 3-point range. This resulted in two and-one layups for Cahill and fewer turnovers in transition, as the Hoosiers only turned the ball over 14 times Friday night.
Moren said it was the hustle plays, like Cahill recording five consecutive points, the guards forcing turnovers in transition and Buss hitting two free throws when the result of the game weighed solely on her shots.
“I stepped up there with confidence,” Buss said. “Our team really needed those free throws, so I made sure to take my time, tie it and go to overtime.”
