On an emotional afternoon in Evanston, Illinois, the IU women’s basketball team was doomed by ice-cold shooting and a lack of bench production.
After a pregame moment of silence to honor Northwestern sophomore guard Jordan Hankins, who died Monday, the Wildcats came out aggressively Saturday and secured an 80-67 win against the Hoosiers.
From the opening tip, the shots weren’t falling for IU. A 28-percent field goal percentage in the first quarter put the Hoosiers in a 23-12 hole after one.
Strong defense in the second quarter tightened the halftime score to just a five-point IU deficit, but the Hoosiers were still shooting just 25 percent after the first 20 minutes.
“It was extremely frustrating,” IU assistant coach Glenn Box said on the IU radio postgame show on WHCC 105.1 FM. “We felt like we had several shots that we typically make that could change the way the game went. With that being said, we struggled to guard them. We struggled to guard dribble penetration, and we paid the price.”
In the third quarter Northwestern took advantage of several IU miscues and pulled away. For most of the second half, the deficit hovered in the double digits for the Hoosiers. Twelve of Northwestern’s 18 points off turnovers came in the third and fourth quarters.
Box said it was no surprise the IU defense wore down by the end of the game. He blamed the offensive turnovers for getting the defense out of position.
“In the second half there was a string of turnover, layup, turnover, layup,” Box said. “It just puts a tremendous amount of stress on our transition defense when we just give the ball to our opponent or take terrible shots.”
It was a battle of front courts and backcourts on the stat sheet for the two teams. Wildcat senior guards Christen Inman and Ashley Deary combined for 31 points and nine assists. Deary played nearly the entire game, and Northwestern was plus 17 in her time on the court.
Junior forward Amanda Cahill and senior forward Jenn Anderson continued their hot stretches for IU. Both dropped 17 points Saturday and combined for 12 offensive rebounds as well. A combined 6-29 shooting performance from junior guard Tyra Buss and senior guard Alexis Gassion hurt IU, but getting just nine bench points did nothing to help mitigate the starters’ shooting woes.
The Hoosiers have now lost two games in a row and three of four in the early part of the Big Ten schedule.
Dropping to a 2-3 conference record doesn’t necessarily doom IU, but it certainly makes things tougher. With Purdue and Penn State visiting Bloomington in the next 10 days, some time at home can go a long way toward helping the Hoosiers settle down.
“We have to be better, we have to play better,” Box said. “We know we’re fully capable of doing that. And we do know that we’re in the Big Ten and it’s hard to win on the road. So you don’t get too high, you don’t get too low. The good news for us is we haven’t peaked. We know we can be better.”
