Yes, that's right. Though the layoff has been too long, I am making my triumphant return to the blog with a Beatles reference, something my boy Lee Hurwitz over and Under the Rock would approve of. What's getting better today and in the last two weeks? The IU women's basketball team. The Hoosiers are currently riding a three-game winning streak that would seem modest but for who they've beaten. A come-from-behind win at home agaisnt Bowling Green and then a road win at Cincinnati got the Hoosiers out of a little post-Thanksgiving funk they'd been in. But what they did Saturday night trumped just about anything else they've accomplished this year, at least in the win-loss column. IU toppled visiting No. 13 West Virginia 79-66. Though yours truly is currently in Atlanta and could not attend the game, the Hoosiers were rather impressive. The box score was filled with the usual suspects for IU, with Jamie Braun hitting double digits with 17 points an grabbing 13 boards -a career high. But she was hardly alone. Kim Roberson had 17, Amber Jackson dropped 16 and Nikki Smith hit 4-of-6 from behind the arc to score 15 for the home team. West Virginia, by contrast, struggled. A team that averaged about 77 points per game coming into the contest shot a mere 41 percent for the game and 23 percent from behind the arc. The Mountaineers did put four players of their own in double figured, led by Chakhia Cole and Meg Bulger - sister of St. Louis Rams QB Marc - who each had 19. The Mountaineers began the game a horrid 2-of-17 from the floor though, and IU got to the free-throw line plenty, hitting 26-of-29 from the charity stripe. IU took a 35-23 lead into halftime and outscored West Virginia 44-43 in the second frame as well. Not bad against a team whose only other loss this season came to Tennessee back in November.
A few quick links The Associated Press paid a visit to Assembly Hall, and the good folks at iuhoosiers.com left us photo galleries put together both from AP and their own photos. You can find them at the top left of the box score, linked here: Click for box score and photo gallery links. Similarly, there are links to postgame quotes, a few of which are pulled out for your reading pleasure below. You can reach all the quotes here.
Coach Felisha Legette-Jack "Today we played a great team, a fantastic team ranked 13th in the nation and our team decided not to care about 13; they didn't care about anything other than the fact that we are a focused team and it is about Indiana women's basketball."
"We are a young team and that is a blessing. We are excited that they are learning their lessons and we are moving forward. We don't think about playing other teams, per se. We are just trying to get somewhere. Our journey is long and right now we are playing good basketball."
Amber Jackson "We just played hard every time we were on the floor. We know they are good team and they were going to try to come back"
