Riding a hot streak and having recently earned its biggest win of the season, IU women's basketball is entering what Coach Teri Moren calls its second season - Big Ten play.
The Hoosiers are 10-3 after a tough non conference schedule that saw them play games in seven different states. On Wednesday night, IU will travel to play at Penn State for a 7 p.m. tipoff.
Moren said the six-game winning streak her team is currently on will be a boost for IU's momentum entering the conference slate. In the Sunshine Classic last week, IU picked up wins over Florida and Stony Brook.
"We just came off a great road trip last week in Florida," Moren said in an interview posted by Hoosier Sports Report. "We played some good basketball. We've learned a lot, I think, in our wins and we've certainly learned a lot in the losses we've had. We just continue to try to get better every day."
When the Hoosiers take on the 10-2 Nittany Lions on Wednesday, they will be facing an opponent that is quite similar to themselves. As IU is led by junior guard Tyra Buss and her 19.8 points per game, sophomore guard Teniya Page anchors Penn State with 19.8 points per game as well.
Also like IU, Penn State has a two-headed monster in the backcourt with junior guard Lindsey Spann being able to take some attention away from Page as senior guard Alexis Gassion does with Buss. Gassion's four-inch height advantage over both Page and Spann, however, will give the Hoosiers an edge in the rebounding battle among the guards.
Freshman De'Janae Boykin will be the Nittany Lions' answer to IU's junior forward Amanda Cahill in the paint. Boykin recently became eligible after sitting out a year due to her transfer from Connecticut, and the one-time top recruit is averaging 11 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, closely mirroring Cahill's 13.9 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.
"Much different than they were a year ago," Moren said of Penn State. "Talk about depth, they have it. They have two terrific guards, a great point guard. They're really great in transition."
Penn State shoots about 46 percent from the field and 38 percent from three, which also closely resembles IU's 50 percent field goal percentage and 37 percent mark from deep. The two teams match up nearly identically across the board, so each team will likely seek to identify and exploit any possible advantage they can as the game develops.
Moren said she plans to use multiple defenses Wednesday, and since varying defensive looks within individual games has successfully thrown off IU at times this season, it stands to reason that strategy could work on a Penn State team that plays so similarly.
"I think the best thing for us to be able to do is to go in there and try to keep them off balance as much as we can with some man-to-man and then throw in some zone," Moren said. "We're going to have to be able to rebound the ball, and we've got to go there and hit some shots."
