Zach Osterman

The IU women's basketball team certainly will. Hey everybody, it's about 2 1/2 hours until 2008 here in Atlanta, and I just got back from watching as much as I could stand of the Insight Bowl. The IU women's basketball team, however, spent their day in Evanston, Ill., and they made the most of it, beating Northwestern 84-53 on the road to notch their first Big Ten win in their first conference game this year. The Hoosiers put this one away early, as they used a 15-2 run to stake a 41-24 halftime lead. IU led by as many as 34 points in the second half en route to the 31-point win. The visitors put four players in double figures, led by Jamie Braun, who had 20 points. As usual, Braun also filled other columns in the box score. She had four rebounds, three assists and a career-high six steals. Whitney Thomas added 14 yards and seven boards, Amber Jackson had 12 points and Nikki Smith had 11 in the Hoosiers' victory. This marks IU's fourth straight victory and keeps their momentum high heading into a Jan. 3 home date with Purdue, a team that beat Wisconsin on Dec. 28 and then fell to Minnesota two days later. Not much to say about the Northwestern game. IU did what they had to do, playing with the Wildcats early before breaking out and holding a rather large lead for most of the game. IU shot a very consistent 52 percent from the field, they shot at that clip in both halves. They also hit 81 percent of their free throws, going 21-of-26. As I said in a previous posts, the first thing IU has to do this year to be successful in conference is take care of business against teams they should beat, and they did so in convincing fashion today. This game obviously closes out 2007 for the Hoosiers, a season that has seen them go deep in the postseason NIT and bring six freshman and eight total newcomers into the fold for the 2007-2008 season. They'll carry the momentum of that winning streak and a comfortable opening conference win into the new year with a big test coming in three days when they welcome rival Purdue to Assembly Hall. Check back with ATR for a preview of the Purdue game, and I'll be back on campus by tip off, so I'll have plenty of coverage of that contest up on www.idsnews.com and Above the Rim for continuous coverage of the Hoosiers as we move into 2008. Happy New Year to everyone.

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