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(03/09/09 4:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU women’s basketball team was still filled with hurt and heartache 30 minutes after its Big Ten Tournament ended.The women sat lifelessly in the Conseco Fieldhouse locker room, trying to cope after they coughed up a 14-point first-half lead en route to a 64-68 loss to in-state rival Purdue. That locker room also housed an IU team that must now wait until March 16 before it knows whether it’s worthy of an NCAA tournament berth; winning the Big Ten Tournament would have secured the Hoosiers a bid. IU was using the tournament as a platform to show the NCAA committee that it deserves to play in March.The Hoosiers finished their season at 19-10 and will wait until next week to see if an NCAA tournament spot is in their future for the first time since 2002. Although IU was already on the tournament bubble before its second-round loss, Legette-Jack said she feels it has done enough to secure a spot.“There’s nothing in my spirit that tells me that we’re not going to be one of 64,” she said. “I think we laid our hats out there throughout the season, and it’s up to the committee to make that decision.”While Legette-Jack was looking toward the future, the loss had yet to fully sink in for her players. Senior forward Amber Jackson tried to put into words how tough it was to lose to the rival.“The pain is pretty insurmountable,” she said. “Playing at Indiana, playing against Purdue, that’s the one game you don’t ever want to lose – especially on a stage like this.”By halftime, the Hoosiers’ lead, which at one point reached 14, was cut to just one, the half finishing at 36-35. Legette-Jack said some of that was due in part to foul trouble.“With Whitney Thomas and Kim Roberson still in the game, I think we could really take that up to 20 with that momentum we had,” Legette-Jack said. “And when we had to go to the bench a little bit, that hurt us.”Junior point guard Jamie Braun, who led the team with 18 points, hit a left-handed floater in traffic to tie the game at 64 with 1:24 remaining. Purdue freshman Brittany Rayburn then got loose on a breakaway layup to put her team up two with 34 seconds left.After a timeout, the Hoosiers had the ball with 14 seconds remaining. Senior Kim Roberson’s 3-point attempt with five seconds left was off the mark. Boilermaker Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton then grabbed the rebound and knocked down two free throws to push the lead to four, ending IU’s chances.Legette-Jack said she tried to gauge her team’s emotions before calling the last play.“I asked my team what they thought would work, who felt good,” she said. “I wanted to see what eyes light up before I made a decision on what call to make.”Although sophomore Jori Davis was the team’s first option, Legette-Jack had no problem with Roberson taking a 3-point shot for the win.“I like that idea, what Kim Roberson tried to do,” she said. “Let’s not try to tie it – let’s try to win it. And it just fell short.”
(03/05/09 5:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU women’s basketball team has had one goal since the beginning of the season: an NCAA tournament berth. Starting today, the Hoosiers will make their closing argument to the tournament selection committee. IU starts Big Ten Tournament play against Michigan this afternoon in Indianapolis. IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said she is not sure how well her team has to do in order to secure a bid in the 64-team NCAA Tournament.“This is a place we have not been before,” the third-year coach said in a teleconference Tuesday. “This is all brand new, this next step they call the NCAA tournament.”If the Hoosiers secure a bid, it will be their first since 2002, when they won the Big Ten Tournament.Junior point guard Jamie Braun said she thinks the Hoosiers could hoist a Big Ten Championship trophy on Sunday.“I think if we keep playing together like we have been ... if we just come every game, we definitely have a chance to win it all, and that’s what our goals are set at,” Braun said after IU’s 67-61 win against Michigan on Sunday.Tipoff for today’s game is scheduled for 25 minutes after the first game of the afternoon, which starts at noon.The matchup will be the Hoosiers’ third meeting with the Wolverines and the second contest between the two in only five days. Though the sixth-seeded Hoosiers are 2-0 against 11th-seeded Michigan this season, Legette-Jack said she doesn’t see any pros or cons to playing the Wolverines again.“We don’t look at it in any way,” Legette-Jack said. “We just believe we have to play whomever we have to play.” The tournament will be played in Indianapolis, which should provide a home-court advantage for the Hoosiers.“It helps in the fact that it’s only a hour away,” senior forward Whitney Thomas said Sunday in a press conference. “Hopefully we get some fans there, and that could be our extra boost.” The quick turnaround for today’s game has forced Legette-Jack to find other ways to motivate her players. “This is kind of like the WNBA, in a sense. You play someone once and have to play them again, back to back,” she said. “A couple of kids really have aspirations to take it to the next level, so we kind of put it to them like this: ‘This is what you have to do. You have to continue to try to play a great team two times in a row and find a different edge to offset what they already know.’”
(03/02/09 4:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In basketball, March signifies one thing: the NCAA tournament. With no spot solidified for the Hoosiers, a win against the 10th-place team in the conference would only help their case to get in. The Hoosiers got that win Sunday, defeating Michigan 67-61 on Senior Day. This was the Hoosiers’ first game in a week, and for the first 26 minutes, the Wolverines were in control, leading by as many as 15 points with 15:40 remaining.IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said some of the struggles could have been attributed to the time off, but she also pointed to Michigan’s hot start from the field.“Michigan came out and shot (56.7 percent) in the first half,” said Legette-Jack. “I think it had a lot to do with Michigan, but we also were pushing the tempo so fast, and I think that was even faster than what we are comfortable with.”The third-year coach said her team needed to reign in on that enthusiasm and harness it a bit, something she said junior guard Jamie Braun was able to do effectively.“I know we wanted to push the tempo, but I knew we had to push it with poise,” Legette-Jack said. “I talked with Jamie at halftime and I told her to find our pulse, and she certainly found a way to get it pushed, but also to slow it down enough to get up underneath it.”Up six at the half, the Wolverines’ first two possessions pushed the visitors’ lead to 11. Legette-Jack called a 30-second timeout, which senior Kim Roberson said was to get the team focused.“She told us to get stops,” Roberson said, “and she kept motivating us and instilling the passion that she always has to bring the intensity on the court. We made a run, which helped, so great timeout, Coach Jack.”After sinking to a deficit of 15 with 15:40 remaining, the Hoosiers outscored Michigan 34-13 the rest of the way. One of the catalysts to IU’s run was the insertion of freshman guard Ashlee Mells. During the 10-plus minutes she played during the second half, she scored seven points and pulled three rebounds – two offensive – and had two steals.Most importantly, the Hoosiers went on a 23-9 run that cut Michigan’s lead to 57-56 by the time Mells left the game with 5:15 remaining.Mells said knew she had to bring IU energy when she came off the bench.“I wanted to bring a little spark in, because just watching on the sideline, it seemed like that’s what we were lacking a little bit of,” she said. “Once I came in, I knew just to play ball and to play good defense.”Capping the comeback in the second half, Legette-Jack said the game proved just how good her team can be.“This game signified to me that we took the cap off our ability to be great,” she said. “We don’t know how great we can be. We are just going to go out there and keep playing and see where the chips fall.”The Big Ten Tournament begins in Indianapolis this week, and the Hoosiers will face Michigan on Thursday in the second game on the schedule. Game one begins at noon, and the Hoosiers’ rematch with the Wolverines will come 25 minutes after that game is over.
(02/23/09 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For a team looking to solidify a spot in next month’s NCAA Tournament, a win against a ranked opponent would improve those chances greatly. The IU women’s basketball team didn’t get such a boost.Although the Hoosiers were up by as many as 10 points in the first half, No. 20 Ohio State handed IU its first double-digit loss of the season, 79-67.The first half of the game Sunday went similar to how it did three weeks ago when the teams played in Columbus, Ohio. That day, the Hoosiers (17-9, 10-7) were up nine points with 4:54 remaining in the first half. The Buckeyes then went on to lead by three at the half. Sunday, the Hoosiers were up seven with 4:34 before halftime, and Ohio State went on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 33.“We learned early on this season that this team really plays hard when they get into that situation and circumstance,” Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen it before several times, but it doesn’t have an effect on us. We just keep playing.”In the second half, the Buckeyes turned up the pressure on the Hoosiers, led by last year’s Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Shavelle Little. One of those affected by the pressure was Hoosier junior point guard Jamie Braun. Though Braun played all but one minute in the first half, in the second she played only 10 minutes due to the pressure Little put on her.IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack still praised her shooting-guard-turned-point-guard after the match.“I think that she is a great point guard that got converted,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “She didn’t play well today. We expect her to step up and get into the gym as she always does. There’s no one of this team that works harder than Jamie.“Today, No. 20 was a nuisance to her, and she didn’t play as well as she could’ve played. I expect her to understand that, and I expect to come back and be the Jamie we know and love.”The Buckeyes also had it going on offense. Four players scored in double figures, led by senior forward Star Allen who tied a career high with 22 points.“We didn’t make the game as hard for her as we should have,” senior forward Amber Jackson said. “Yes, we executed the game plan against Jantel (Lavender), but with Star Allen we really needed to pick it up, and it hurt us in this game tremendously.”With a week off before their next and last regular season game, Legette-Jack said the team is going to get back to working on the fundamentals.“I thought our help side wasn’t as nearly good as it could’ve been. We are going to work on what’s causing us problems – bringing up the ball up the floor and a push situation, as opposed to methodically bringing up the ball we want to push the ball up a little bit more. We believe we can score 75 points a game this late in the season,” she said.
(02/13/09 5:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming into Thursday night’s game against Michigan State, the Hoosiers were riding a season-high three-game losing streak, with losses in four of their last five games. A defeat of the Spartans would have given IU its first win since Jan. 29.After a slow start, the Hoosiers managed to come back in the second half but fell short in overtime, losing 71-65.Six-foot-9 Spartan junior Allyssa Dahaan made more field goals, at six, than the Hoosiers managed in the first half – with IU shooting 21 percent.Though the first half was poor, the Hoosiers only found themselves down six at the half, due in part to 15 Spartan turnovers.What kept the Hoosiers in the game was free-throw shooting: IU made 8-of-10 in the first half and 24-of-28 for the game.“In losses you have to find small victories,” said IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack after the game. “They had great concentration. There was a lot of stress and duress down the stretch, and with freshmen stepping to the line, like Ashlee (Mells) making shots, that’s one of the small victories we’ll receive.”The game’s play went back and forth with nine separate ties and 14 lead changes. One lead change came with 58.3 seconds left in the game.Sophomore Jori Davis, who had yet to hit a field goal, knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Hoosiers the lead, 55-52.“The play was called red for Jamie (Braun), but it got kind of mixed up so I just stepped back and hit the 3,” Davis said. “It wasn’t really a play – we just needed a bucket, and I just had to shoot it.”After Dahaan tied the game at 57 with a jumper, IU sophomore Andrea McGuirt unsuccessfully attempted a half-court heave with four seconds left, sending the game into overtime.A shorthanded and undersized IU was outscored 14-8 in overtime to reach the game’s final tally.Complicating things for the Hoosiers in the extra period was the absence of seniors Whitney Thomas and Kim Roberson, who both fouled out in the second half.“We were already at a deficit when it comes to height and size, but those two are a part of our heart,” Legette-Jack said. “I just think Whitney Thomas is a kid that gets the short end of the stick. If two people are in the vicinity, the call is going to go against her. It’s hard to play when you don’t have those guys out there, especially minus Sasha Chaplin. We didn’t have any size from the get-go.”
(02/12/09 4:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Any losing streak is tough. The women’s basketball team is on a three-game one, having lost four of its last five games. IU hopes to break its longest losing streak tonight against Michigan State (17-7, 10-3) at Assembly Hall.IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said she knows there is no quit in the Hoosiers (15-7, 8-5). “I think this is a great team,” she said. “This is a team that is resilient. They certainly understand that staying in the race is how you become better.”Some of the Hoosiers’ struggles have been attributed to how teams are now defending against them.“They are letting us shoot the ball more on the perimeter,” she said. “They are clogging the middle and making our shooters shoot the ball, and our shooters haven’t been looking to shoot the ball, but that won’t be a choice anymore.”In the last five games, the Hoosiers have shot 31.9 percent.“They are getting overzealous, some of them,” Legette-Jack said. “It’s not all of them. It’s just certain kids. Some of them are leaning back, some leaning forward, so we are just trying to adjust them individually.”Coming into tonight’s game against Michigan State – the second-best team in the Big Ten – the Hoosiers spent this week’s practice working on what made them successful earlier in the season. IU defeated the Spartans 62-48 Dec. 29 on the road.“It’s just getting back to where we were,” senior forward Amber Jackson said. “We’ve watched a lot of film about Michigan State, of how we played them the last time and how they’ve been playing. We know we really have to bring it.”Jackson has seen defenses change their approaches toward defending her since the beginning of the season. Legette-Jack has told Jackson to not be afraid to use her jump shot.“Amber has a great shot,” she said. “She is a really good free throw jump shooter, but she loves the confrontation, which I also loved as a player, and she wants to get in there and mix it up. Sometimes you just have to get those easy buckets to make them play you, and then they will become easier to go down.” Jackson agreed with Legette-Jack’s assessment.“I’m definitely looking to take what I have, ‘cause a lot of times during the first half of the season and even last year, teams are looking for me to go to the goal,” she said. “Teams are playing me for that, so if they give me an open shot, I just need to take that, if they give me a drive, take that, versus taking a shot that isn’t open. I’m definitely confident taking the shot – it’s the matter of making it.”Jackson said tonight’s game could not come soon enough, as her teammates are ready to be back on the court and play to their capabilities.“We are obviously anxious to be back playing,” she said. “The season is dwindling down and for the majority of us, myself, Kim (Roberson), Whitney (Thomas) and Lydia (Serfling), this is our last go-around. We have five games left and one guaranteed game in the Big Ten Conference Tournament, and we are really anxious to get it going right.”
(02/06/09 5:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Some things never change. And for the Hoosiers, not being able to win in Iowa City, Iowa, has become a trend.IU has not won at Iowa since February 1994, and Thursday was no different.The Hoosiers lost 69-67.In their first meeting last month, the Hoosiers (15-6, 8-4) handled the Hawkeyes easily, scoring 76 points and defeating Iowa by 22.With this loss, IU now has lost two straight for the first time since November.The first half saw both teams struggle from the floor resulting in a low-scoring half, which saw the Hawkeyes ahead, 27-22.Iowa had a 34.5 percent field-goal percentage, and the Hoosiers only shot 25.7 percent from the field. Despite the poor shooting, IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack urged her team at half that there was still plenty of game still to be played.“I told them to keep playing – the game is two halves,” she said. “We didn’t bring a lot of energy and first half, and the second half we brought more energy. We just got beat by a great team tonight.”One huge difference from this meeting and last meeting was the play of Hawkeyes senior forward Wendy Ausdemore.In the first meeting between the two, Ausdemore was a non-factor, fouling out after 27 minutes of play and only scoring two points.But Thursday night, Ausdemore was Iowa’s leading scorer with 20 points.After IU opened the game ahead 2-0, the Hoosiers didn’t regain the lead again until 9:38 remained in game. But it was short-lived as the Hawkeyes regained the lead at 42-41, on a pair of Ausdemore free throws.Iowa used an 11-1 run to break the game wide open at 58-44, its largest lead of the game. Just as the Hawkeyes seemed to have control of the game – up 13 with 3:06 remaining – IU fought back.“We started to play hard, playing not to lose,” Legette-Jack said. “In the first half, I think we played not to lose. We started to make adjustments.”Junior point guard Jamie Braun, who led IU with 21 points, scored 14 of her points in the second half. Braun hit two jumpers from beyond to arc to cut the lead to six and then to four with 1:32 remaining. After a steal by senior Kim Roberson led to two free throws from Braun, IU was down just two.But the Hoosiers were never able to break through as the Hawkeyes held on, hitting their free throws late to hold off the visitors.The Hoosiers have now lost three of four, after winning 13 of their previous 14.“Even as a good as coach I am, I can’t tell you what we need to fix for Sunday’s game,” Legette-Jack said. “I can’t make an assessment yet. We are just going to watch film and find out. Right now our hearts are just filled with sadness.”
(01/30/09 5:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming off a loss to Illinois, a team that hadn’t yet won a game in the Big Ten, one would think the Hoosiers would come out in their next game aiming to rid their tongues of the taste of the defeat.For most of the game it looked as though the Hoosiers might drop their second consecutive conference game. But IU found a way to come from behind to beat Penn State 65-55 on Thursday.The Hoosiers (15-4, 8-2) got off to a sluggish start in the first half, with IU down by as many as nine points with 10:40 remaining.But freshman guard Ashlee Mells sparked the team.Mells and the Hoosiers then proceeded to go on a 15-0 run, picking up their first lead of the night along the way. Mells scored seven points on the run.IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said Mells was just the spark plug IU needed, also giving a nod to sophomore guard Whitney Lindsay, or “Little Whitney.”“(Mells) brought energy. We needed some kind of energy,” Legette-Jack said. “We didn’t need anyone with a high IQ on the basketball court. We just needed someone with no fear that was going to attack the gaps. She really brought the energy for these guys to feed off of. In the second half, we were able to sustain it. She was tremendous, and so was Little Whitney. Little Whitney came off the bench and really ignited us well.“Everyone on this team knows their roles and accepts their roles. The one thing about this team, we only care about the ‘W’ at the end of the game.”After the run, the score stood at 26-20, but the Nittany Lions fired back, using a run of their own to take back a 29-26 advantage at halftime.After a strong first half, turnovers plagued Penn State in the second frame, as the Nittany Lions lost the ball 12 times.“I thought we were aggressive early on, especially in transition, and I thought we were aggressive on the boards,” said Penn State coach Coquese Washington. “I thought late in the game, especially in the second half, our turnovers were a big factor and I thought Indiana, in particular, Amber Jackson did a good job on the boards and getting some easy baskets down low.”The second half went more of the Hoosiers’ way. IU took the lead for good, 38-36, thanks to junior point guard Jamie Braun’s 3-point basket with 14:41 remaining in the game.IU had its lead up to as many as 11 on two occasions during the second half. In contrast, the closest the Nittany Lions got to the Hoosiers was an eight-point deficit.Senior Amber Jackson led IU with a team-high 15 points. She also pulled down 12 rebounds, half of which were on offense.Though Jackson said this was a good win to have after a disappointing loss to Illinois, she mentioned this game was just a small part of what they plan to accomplish this season.“We have a goal to get to the NCAA Tournament. None of us have been there, and all the seniors are really dedicated on that goal,” she said. “We know its one game at a time. After the losing to Illinois we really had to come back and focus and practice and realize that we have to come back against Penn State to start a new streak from here.”
(01/26/09 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The sign of a great team is defeating those you are supposed to beat. On paper, the Hoosiers were supposed to defeat the Fighting Illini.The two teams came into yesterday’s matchup on opposite ends of the Big Ten. The Hoosiers were atop the standings, having won 13 of their past 14 games and riding a four-game winning streak.The Fighting Illini were in last place in the conference, having lost 10 straight including all nine Big Ten games.But each team’s record proved nothing.The bottom-dwelling Illini knocked off conference leader IU 62-51 Sunday at Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill.Sophomore guard Jori Davis opened the game by knocking down a 3-point basket, giving the Hoosiers an early 3-0 lead, 32 seconds into the game. But IU missed its next 14 field goal attempts. Despite the long drought, the Hoosiers found themselves leading 9-6 after senior forward Whitney Thomas’ jump shot at 9:38.“We work collectively as a part of the offense and for people to do one-on-one at times in the offense, we’ll never accept that kind of thought process,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said in a statement. “The shots just didn’t fall. In the game of basketball, the ball has to go in the hole, and the shots that we took did not fall. We had 12 steals. We took 63 shots, and we took shots in our range, but at the end of the day, we didn’t score.”Sophomore guard Whitney Lindsay’s layup in the last minute of the half gave the Hoosiers a two-point advantage at halftime, 22-20 – their lowest halftime output all season.But the second half belonged to Illinois’ junior center Jenna Smith. Smith, who had six points and eight rebounds at halftime, exploded in the second half with 18 points and seven rebounds.With the score tied at 33, Illinois’ shots began to fall while IU’s didn’t. The lead grew to six – 39-33 – with 9:10 remaining in the game.Less than three minutes later, the lead doubled, 45-33 with 6:35 left. By that point, the only thing left in doubt was Illinois’ margin of victory, which ended up being 11.IU, who entered the game second in the conference in field goal percentage at 43 percent, made only 28.6 percent of its shots (18-of-63). In contrast, Illinois came in shooting 36.6 percent and finished the game hitting 46 percent of its shots.IU had 12 steals and forced 21 turnovers, two positives from Sunday’s game. “We had to press to find a way to try and offset (Illinois), and we got the steals, we got the opportunities,” Legette-Jack said. “I give credit to great shooting from Illinois because our shots certainly didn’t fall.”
(01/23/09 5:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After an emotional win against your bitter in-state rival, you can go one of two ways: You can either use the victory as momentum for the next game, or you can have a letdown.Well, at least for Thursday night, the Hoosiers chose the former.Four days after defeating Purdue by 14 points at home, IU dominated a lesser opponent in Michigan (9-10, 2-6), defeating the Wolverines 60-50. The win keeps IU (14-3, 7-1) atop the Big Ten Conference’s standings. The 7-1 mark is the Hoosiers’ best-ever start.“I just think that Michigan is a really fundamentally sound team,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said in a statement released by IU Athletics. “They have such discipline in their offensive segment that pressured our defense so much, and it had us second guessing ourselves a lot. But one thing about our team – when we stay together, for some reason, we figure out how to come together and win.”IU led wire-to-wire after senior guard Kim Roberson’s 3-pointer seven seconds into the game. When sophomore guard Jori Davis scored with 16:20 remaining in the first half, she was the last Hoosier starter to do so. Her jumper capped a 10-0 run to put the Hoosiers up 13-3 at that point. IU jogged into the locker room with a 36-19 advantage.The second half was more of the same for the Hoosiers. Its largest lead of the game came after senior forward Amber Jackson’s field goal in the half’s first minute, putting the Hoosiers up 19. Although Michigan played a much more competitive second half, outscoring IU 31-24, the closest the Wolverines got was on three different occasions when they cut the Hoosier lead to 10.IU held Michigan to 37 percent shooting from the field (17-of-45), with eight of its 17 field goals coming from beyond the 3-point line. IU improved to 10-1 when holding opponents under 40 percent from the field.“I don’t think they really wanted shots on the inside,” Legette-Jack said in the statement. “I think they really want the ball to go inside and come back out. We tried to pretend a little bit and go inside and come back out and defend the 3. I just think that if we’re giving up 2s it’s better than giving up 3s, so we rolled the dice and that kind of helped us out.”As has been the story for the Hoosiers all year, someone different stepped up for IU. Jackson, who in Monday night’s game against Purdue had season lows in points with four and field goal attempts with just three, was back to her usual productive self Thursday. She led all scorers with 18 points on 8-of-14 from the floor. She also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.“Every game is key for tempo because if we’re playing a tempo that we want to play that means we’re going to do something right and that means we’re going to get the open looks that we had,” junior Jamie Braun said in the statement. “Amber Jackson was really big on rebounds off of my missed shots, so if we have the tempo that means we’re doing something right and usually helps us out in the long run.”
(01/15/09 4:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack looks across at the opposite bench in tonight’s game against Wisconsin, she is likely to get a glimpse of former Hoosiers coach Kathi Bennett.Bennett coached at IU from 2000 to 2005. She finished her career at IU with a 72-74 record and in 2002 her No. 5-ranked Hoosiers became the lowest seeded team to win the Big Ten Tournament. Bennett is now in her first season as an assistant coach for the Badgers.Legette-Jack said she feels fortunate for the opportunity to coach at IU because of the departure of Bennett, adding she is glad to have some of Bennett’s former players.“I’m grateful she decided to move on because it allowed me to come here and lead these young ladies,” she said. “Some of them she brought here, in Kim (Roberson) and Whitney Thomas, and for that I’m certainly grateful.”As for senior forward Thomas, she is happy Bennett gave her the privilege to play at IU, but knows there is a bigger task at hand tonight.“I respect Coach Bennett. She gave me the opportunity to come here and allowed me to have the experience I’ve had, but at the same time we are looking to win regardless who’s on the other side,” Thomas said. “We all want to win and that’s what we’re going to focus on.” The Hoosiers (11-3, 4-1) are coming off of a road win against Penn State, where for the third time this season all five starters have scored in double figures. The same players are also averaging double figures at this point in the season.Sophomore guard Jori Davis, who is averaging 10.1 points per game, said the balanced scoring attack is an important asset to possess.“I think it’s a good attribute to the team because our opponents can’t just stop one person,” she said. “We have three seniors that can score 20 points a night if they want, but since we have so many scorers, it’s even distribution among the team.”Legette-Jack credits the play of some of her non-starters, sophomore guards Andrea McGuirt, Whitney Lindsay and freshman forward Danilsa Andujar, with the success of her starters.“I think what made us great is our reserve people stepped up and allowed our starters to take a breath and have a seat to analyze the game from the bench for a little bit,” she said. “It’s great to see all five starters doing their thing. It’s really cool that it’s hard to defend us, but it’s a bigger blessing for the reserves to step up and do what they did.”After long road trips to Minnesota and Penn State, Davis is excited to be playing at home and defending Assembly Hall, where her team has only lost one game this season.“It’s important that we protect home court,” Davis said. “Coach (Marc) Wilson told us we have to win every game at home, which will help get us to 20 wins and try to steal some on the road. We definitely want to protect home court.”
(12/30/08 3:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While many are looking forward to the start of a New Year, the Hoosiers (9-2, 2-0) might want 2008 to last a bit longer. The Hoosiers raffled off their eight straight win in a 62-48 win against Michigan State. The win was also IU coach Felisha Legette Jack’s 100th win of her career. The Hoosiers opened up the game with a 6-0 lead and never looked back. Freshman Lindsay Enterline’s three point basket with 3:31 left in the first half capped a 12-0 run and had the Hoosiers up by their largest margin of the game, 20 points, leading 34-14. In the second half, the Hoosiers never lost their double digit lead. The closest the Spartans got was with 8:27 remaining, when Michigan cut the Hoosiers lead to 11, but the Hoosiers answered with junior point guard Jamie Braun’s jumper, and a lay up by senior Kim Roberson to put the Hoosiers back up by 15. The Hoosiers placed three players in double figures led by sophomore Jori Davis with 14 points. Senior Amber Jackson and Braun finished with 12. Another Hoosier approaching a milestone is senior Whitney Thomas. Thomas scored seven points in the game and is now just nine points shy of 1,000 career points. The Hoosiers return at 4 p.m. Sunday in Assembly Hall to face Iowa.
(12/21/08 1:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With five days until Christmas, the IU women's basketball team were in the giving spirit. The Hoosiers (8-2, 1-0) handed Northwestern its ninth consecutive loss against the Hoosiers with an 81-57 throttling of the Wildcats in their Big Ten opener. The win was IU’s seventh straight, tying the team's longest streak since the 2000-01 season.SLIDESHOW: IU-NorthwesternThe Hoosiers starters scored 71 of their 81 points, led by senior forward Whitney Thomas with 20 points. She is now 16 points away from 1,000 career points at IU. Thomas, who had struggled from the floor her last two games, finished 8-14 and hit all six of her free throws. Thomas credits a recent talk with IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack for her play on the offensive side.“I spoke to coach Jack and she told me I needed to start to play free and I took that to heart,” Thomas said. “I just went out their and took what they gave me.”The Hoosiers are now off for nine days when they will travel to East Lansing, Mich., to take on Michigan State. Legette-Jack said she isn’t worried about her team getting out of game shape in during the Christmas Break. “I’m not worried about these young ladies,” she said. “They will find open gyms and play pick up (games). Also the seniors will be doing a great job making phone calls to everybody making sure everybody is working out. We aren’t looking at it as time off. When we come back the 26th we will be ready for battle again.”
(12/12/08 4:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Last season, playing on the road plagued the IU women’s basketball team, which only won five games. This year, the Hoosiers have already won four road games in a row and are looking to extend their total winning streak to six games. The Hoosiers compete against West Virginia at 2 p.m. Saturday in Morgantown, W. Va. After posting a 25-8 record last year and an NCAA Tournament berth, the Mountaineers came in 7-1.Sophomore Andrea McGuirt said the key to the five-game winning streak is the team’s unity. “Our main thing that Coach always tells us is to have good team synergy,” she said. “We are all on the same page together. We are all fighting as a team. I think we are all just playing outside ourselves and playing for the team.” Along with teamwork, senior forward Whitney Thomas said the team’s defensive focus is another factor.“I think we are making sure we do all the stuff we need to on defense, so that our offense will come to us,” Thomas said. “We really just picked it up a lot on defense and holding teams down in numbers. That’s what we’ve been focusing on.” Saturday’s game will be a rematch of last year’s, when the Hoosiers defeated the then-No. 13 Mountaineers 79-66 at Assembly Hall. Despite last season’s upset, IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said the team’s four seniors add veteran leadership that was previously lacking. “This is a different group of kids, a different mindset,” Legette-Jack said. “We have such leadership now with our four seniors. Last year Whitney had to stand alone for the most part. This year Amber is doing a great job, Kim is doing a fantastic job, Lydia is really coming to their aid and Whitney is still her solid self.”The Mountaineers bring in two guards that both average double figures. Sophomore guard Liz Repella comes in averaging 15.4 points a game and with a 21-point, 12-rebound against Duquense. Her teammate, senior Takisha Granberry, adds 14.3 points a game. Legette-Jack knows West Virginia’s backcourt is talented. “They’re good,” she said. “They can shoot the ball. Liz can shoot the 3 like no other. She’s shooting 30 percent right now, but if we leave her open, she’ll hit it. The Granberry’s kid, she had eight 3’s (in a game). If we don’t defend the 3-point line, we’ll be in trouble.” Despite the talented duo, Legette-Jack said she trusts the Hoosiers’ game plan.“We are going to come out and do what we do, and if we hold people under 59,” she said, “then we’ll have a shot.”
(12/10/08 5:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For most of the first half, the Butler Bulldogs were a pest the Hoosiers couldn’t get rid of. The eventually overmatched Bulldogs (3-5) stayed within single digits until 3:35 left in the first half when senior Amber Jackson’s layup put the Hoosiers (6-2) up by 10.The Hoosiers then went on a 14-1 run to end the half. They led at halftime 39-20, and went on to win their fifth in a row defeating Butler 63-41.SLIDESHOW: IU vs. Butler“This was a team effort, team win and it’s really exciting to see our team play together,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “We put in subs today, and you really couldn’t tell the starters from the subs because everyone really contributed.”However, all wasn’t pretty for the Hoosiers a few minutes into the game when senior leader Whitney Thomas was pulled.“She didn’t have the intensity we are accustomed to seeing,” Legette-Jack said. “We had to jump on her right away to change her intensity. I think that she was focused, but she wasn’t showing the intensity. Once she understood what we wanted out of her, she changed up real quickly, and we fed off her energy.” The dooming stat for the Bulldogs was their inability to shoot the 3. Butler only made 2-of-21 from behind the arc. Senior guard Kim Roberson said their team defense contributed to the Bulldogs inefficiency.“We practiced all week with our defense,” she said. “We want our defense to dictate. On the perimeter we want to be there on the next pass and be there in their face so the ball doesn’t get into the post.”Butler’s coach Beth Couture had high praises for what Roberson brings to the table defensively.“I’ve known Roberson. I’ve known her since she played at Cathedral (High School), and she’s like a one-man press,” she said. “She can really anticipate, which she did in high school. I figured we have a tough time. I was a little disappointed in our other guards for not stepping up to bring the ball up the floor and allowing her (Kim) to do that.”The second half the Hoosiers came out much like they did to finish out the first half. The Hoosiers extended their lead to 48-25, their largest of the night, after Roberson’s 3-point basket with 17:10 remaining. IU once again had a balanced scoring attack, with three Hoosiers in double figures. Jackson led all scorers with 18 points. Roberson finished with 15, in part from her 3-for-5 shooting behind the arc. Thomas notched her 26th career double-double, finishing with 13 points and 12 rebounds.One scary moment for the Hoosiers was the fall freshman Sasha Chaplin took after a layup in the first half. Chaplin seemed to come down awkwardly on her left leg and was helped off the court. “Well, we’re a family and we care deeply for one another,” Jackson said. “When Sasha went down that definitely put something in us to play harder. It gave us that momentum to keep playing hard and do it for her.”The Hoosiers return to the road having just finished a five-game road streak prior to Tuesday’s game. The matchup will be at 2 p.m. Saturday against West Virginia.
(12/08/08 3:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite senior forward Whitney Thomas and sophomore guard Jori Davis going a combined 3-for-19 from the field and combining for just 15 points, the IU women’s basketball team overcame a four-point halftime deficit to defeat Miami (Fla.) 69-54 in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. In the second half, the Hoosiers (5-2) outscored the Hurricanes 41-22 and shot 52 percent from the field. IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said she thought the Hurricanes played their best in the first half.“I felt they gave us all they had” Legette-Jack said. “I thought they gave us their best punch. I told our team coming into the second half just to be ready and to play our game.”After winning MVP honors at the Hilton Concord Classic in San Francisco last weekend, senior forward Amber Jackson continued her string of strong performance, leading the Hoosiers with 17 points and 12 rebounds, the sixth double-double of her career. Senior guard Kim Roberson and junior Jamie Braun also finished in double figures for the Hoosiers. Roberson ended with 15 points and six rebounds, a Braun added 10 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. After a meager offensive performance in the first half, Jackson said she knew her team would come out better in the second.“We shot very poorly in the first half,” she said. “We played our worst basketball all season, and we were only down four. We knew we could get better, we just needed to match their intensity.”The Hoosiers matched that intensity by using an 8-0 run to start the second half and took the lead. They also had another run of 8-0 and a run of 14-0 to put them up 18 points with 4:08 left. The Hoosiers held Miami’s Shenise Johnson to just eight points – more than five points below her average – on 3-of-16 shooting from the field. After the Hurricanes shot 47 percent from the field in the first half, they only shot 21 percent in the second. The Hoosiers finished their five-game road trip winning four of five and on a four-game win streak. Playing on the road was something that troubled the Hoosiers last year, but so far they have gotten off to a successful start. Legette-Jack said this was a growth experience for her team.“I think our ladies became women on this road trip,” she said.Jackson added that the success can carry over into the rest of the season.“It’s fantastic what we’ve done so far on the road,” Jackson said. “We just have to keep focusing on the task at hand.”After taking care of business on the road, the Hoosiers will play at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Assembly Hall against in-state foe Butler.“We did what we wanted to on the road,” Davis said. “Now we must come back and protect our home court.”
(12/05/08 4:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The women’s basketball team enters the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on a three-game winning streak and look to close out their five-game road trip with a win against the Miami Hurricanes at 7 p.m. Friday at the BankUnited Center. Both teams come into the game on winning streaks of their own. The Hoosiers (4-2) come off a trip to San Francisco where they won the St. Mary’s Thanksgiving Classic by defeating two teams by margins of 27 and 17. As for the Hurricanes (5-2), they come into tonight’s matchup currently on a four-game winning streak.Currently the Hoosiers are 3-1 on the road, and IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said she is pleased with her team’s play away from Assembly Hall, because road games are something that plagued the team last season.“We couldn’t have planned it better with the Big Ten-ACC Challenge being on the road,” Legette-Jack said. “We really concentrated on having a lot more games on the road, because that was a nemesis for us in the Big Ten. We are going to continue to do what we are doing and be excited about going up against an ACC team that’s playing really good basketball right now on their home turf.”In games two and three of the road trip, usual starter and sophomore co-captain Jori Davis did not start, but in their championship game last weekend, Davis earned starting position back and responded well.“It was a calculated decision to find Jori, and I think we did with her 19 points and 14 rebounds,” Legette-Jack said. “I think Jori understands as a captain that you just don’t play the game, you have to play the game at a higher level of everyone else on the court, not just scoring points and rebounding, but intensity and passion. She realized that we aren’t messing around here. We are playing at a certain level, and she has to maintain and sustain that passion. I think she gets it now.”Davis said the benching was an eye-opening experience.“It was a little bit of a wake-up call,” she said. “It also gave me time to look back and see what I need to bring to the team. Rebounding was one of them and just overall giving more, and I bought into it next game.”Friday’s game will also be the first for senior Amber Jackson since being named co-Big Ten Player of the Week, for her two 25-point performances, which were both career highs, last weekend. She also won MVP in that tournament. Before her 50 points in two games, Jackson combined for just 14 points in IU’s first two games of the road trip. Although Jackson said she is pleased with her stellar performance last week, she said she knows no matter her point total she must play as intense as she did last weekend.“I think for anybody, that would be a confidence booster, but those games are over now,” she said. “All I can look forward to now is Miami and playing hard. Against Radford and St. Mary’s, I just played my hardest, and it came out in my favor. Whether I score 25 points or 2 points, I’m going to play just as hard.”
(11/24/08 4:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A tale of two halves is the best way to describe the IU women’s basketball team’s 65-59 loss Saturday night against Middle Tennessee State. Despite out-shooting the Blue Raiders from the floor 52.1 percent to 37.5 percent and going on a 19-0 run in the first half to gain a 30-10 margin at one point, the Hoosiers (1-2) were not able to hold their 36-22 halftime lead. In the second half, the Hoosiers were out-scored 43-23 and only shot 37.5 percent from the floor, which contributed to the disappointing six-point loss.Four players managed to finish in double figures for the Hoosiers, led by junior point guard Jamie Braun’s 16 points, 14 of which came in the first half as she hit all six of her shots from the floor and her two free throws. Also in double figures was senior guard Kim Roberson (14), senior forward Amber Jackson (11) and sophomore guard Jori Davis (10).Down 14 points at the half, Middle Tennessee coach Rick Insell saw something in the Hoosiers’ defense he thought he could expose.“They were in a matchup zone,” he said in a statement. “They play it very well. They were cutting lanes and didn’t have anyone inside. We weren’t having any success offensively so we had to go to something else. We went back to something we had in the bag to deal with that zone. We first put it in at one of those timeouts, but we really talked about it at halftime. We wanted Emily Queen to really play hard in the post, and when she did, it opened up our outside shooters.”It was the Blue Raiders’ pressure IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said her team couldn’t overcome in the second half. “We were attacking,” she said in a statement. “We didn’t worry about the press. In the second half, we decided to look at their press. It was a big monster. It was just five people out there still. This is a lesson we can learn, and I think we will be better for it.”A huge key to the Blue Raiders’ success was their ability to shoot and make the three. Middle Tennessee State hit 11-of-31 from beyond the arc, opposed the Hoosiers just going 1-of-6.“We knew they were going to shoot it a lot, we just needed to defend it better,” Legette-Jack said.Another factor in the loss was the disparity on the offensive glass. The Blue Raiders pulled down 19 offensive rebounds. By contrast, the Hoosiers only recorded six, and they were out-rebounded 38-27 overall.“We need to get better,” Legette-Jack said. “Our goal is always to get at least 40 rebounds. Twenty-seven just isn’t enough.”Although the Hoosiers shot 52 percent from the field, Legette-Jack was still disappointed with the Blue Raiders’ comeback.“You can complain when you lose,” she said. “We are losing. We don’t like moral victories. And we are not a team that is trying to do that. We are trying to scrape our way past Middle Tennessee, a team that is vying to get into position for the NCAA Tournament. We will continue to scrape and claw, and we won’t allow anyone to give us a moral victory.”The Hoosiers are back in action at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Missouri.
(11/05/08 6:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU women’s basketball team was once again impressive last night. This time, they showed their talents off to the Indianapolis Greyhounds in an 82-56 victory.The Greyhounds scored at the 15:04 mark in the first half to make it 7-2 in favor of the Hoosiers. After, Indianapolis did not score until 6:58 left in the half. A scoreless drought of more than eight minutes. The Greyhounds’ next bucket made it 30-5, and the rout was on. IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said defense is the foundation for her team.“Well that’s what we try to put our staple on, is the defense,” Legette-Jack said. “Everyday we kind of get better at it. I thought we showed great sprints, especially when Kim was at the point of it.”Senior guard/forward Kim Roberson did not miss a shot in the first half, hitting all six of her attempts, including two from beyond the arc. Roberson finished the half and the game with 14 points, and has yet to miss a field gold attempt. “My teammates have been setting me good screens and giving me enough time to get my feet set for the shot,” she said. “Little Whit (Lindsay Enterline) and Jamie (Braun) were passing me the ball, and Amber (Jackson) and Whitney (Thomas) were down low with Jori (Davis) setting great screens. So I have to finish it off after they did all that work.”The second half was much more competitive, as the Greyhounds out-scored the Hoosiers 37-35, but the defecit from the first half was too much to overcome. In the second half, the Hoosiers were able to get a lot of easy baskets from senior forwards Thomas and Jackson. Thomas said the baskets came from teammates quickly dumping the ball inside to the post.“We were just posting hard and calling for the ball,” Thomas said. “Like coach says, we got to build it from the inside out, and that’s what we were focusing on. Our guards came in shooting well from the outside and that opened a lot for us inside the post.” IU had four players in double-figures, led by Davis’ 19 points, as she was 7-11 from the floor. Despite two lopsided wins, Legette-Jack said her team still needs to improve before heading into its regular season opener Friday, Nov. 14 at home against Ball State.“We need to find out how effective our defense can be,” Legette-Jaack said. “I think that we are a better defensive team. If we can continue to get better on the defensive end, I think you will see a lot more fun.“A fun basketball team because we will put more points on the board, but it starts from the inside out. We were getting that, and when we got a lead I thought we kind of lost our focus, we kind of stretched out defense, and they got buckets inside.”
(10/31/08 2:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As the IU women’s basketball team looks to make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002, it will take the all-important first step at 4 p.m. Saturday in Assembly Hall against Southern Indiana in the season-opening scrimmage. The scrimmage will take place after the conclusion of the football game. IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said she is eager for her team to get on the court.“It’s always exciting,” Legette-Jack said. “We really want to get on the court and play against somebody else for a change. This will kind of give us a gear-up a little bit, how we are going to sit, what we are going to say, who sits in the middle, where the coaches sit, all the kind of fun stuff.”Players said they are also excited and ready to play someone other than themselves in order to see if some things they practiced will work.“After a while, you know what the team is going to do, and you start thinking stuff isn’t going to work,” said sophomore guard Jori Davis. “So getting to play a different team, things are going to be more open and stuff like that, so it’s real exciting. It kind of feels like you’re in your room all day and you finally get to go out, so we finally get to go out and play another team.”Legette-Jack admits she is unfamiliar with the Division II Screaming Eagles, who went 10-17 last year. However, she said not knowing your opponent doesn’t have to be a bad thing.“I don’t know anything, but that’s cool, because we’ll get to think on the fly,” she said. “You think you know another team, and all of a sudden they change something up and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, that’s not in the scouting report.’ Sometimes the element of surprise might be helpful.”One thing Legette-Jack wants to see from her team in Saturday’s scrimmage is tough play on the defensive side of the floor.“We are looking for competition, and we are looking for our kids to compete,” she said. “We are looking for them to go hard defensively. We want them to put our staple on defense and on rebounding. If we can do those things, I think we can really grow our offense and put some points on the board, only if we can stop them on defense.”For one Hoosier, this scrimmage comes at a good time. Last Sunday at Big Ten Media Day in Chicago, coaches and media members alike picked IU to finish in the bottom half of the conference, a position senior forward Amber Jackson isn’t too happy with.“Our biggest focus is proving everyone wrong,” Jackson said. “We were picked to finish eighth in Big Ten by the fellow coaches of the Big Ten. As players and this whole program, we take that very personally, and we are offended by that. So right now our goal is to come up and show we are not an eighth-place team.”