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(02/25/13 6:17pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Unbelievable! Unbelievable! Can’t believe it!”That was ESPN’s Dick Vitale’s reaction when IU senior forward Christian Watford hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer — now popularly known by Hoosier fans as the Wat Shot — to knock off eventual national champion Kentucky, 73-72, in front of a packed Assembly Hall crowd Dec. 10, 2011.Watford’s clutch shot gave IU the win against the No. 1 team in the nation at the time, but his shot helped IU basketball to another type of win: an ESPY.The Wat Shot was voted ESPN’s Play of the Year at the ESPYs in July 2012, further immortalizing the moment Hoosier fans felt like their program was back following the Kelvin Sampson debacle of 2008 and three straight seasons of futility.“It’s just indescribable,” Watford said after the game. “All I know is I saw Verdell (Jones III) driving, and I just tried to loop behind him. He did a great job of finding me, and I knocked down the shot.”With less than six seconds remaining in the game, Jones took the inbound pass and quickly dribbled up the court, using a Cody Zeller screen in the back court to make it past mid court. Jones then dribbled a few steps inside the 3-point line on the left wing, absorbed his defender, spun and passed to a trailing Watford.A wide open Watford rose and knocked down the shot, sending the crimson-clad crowd into a court-storming frenzy. The shot — and IU Head Coach Tom Crean’s astonished reaction — has been immortalized in multiple YouTube videos and montages.The play was selected by fans, who voted on 16 plays in a bracket-style competition though multiple rounds of voting.Against the Wildcats that night, Watford finished with 20 points, including 4-of-6 3-pointers, and grabbed five rebounds.For the 2012 season, Watford averaged 12.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 43.7 percent shooting in 28.4 minutes per game. He shot more than 43 percent from beyond the arc, 41.6 percent from the floor and 81.5 percent from the line.The now-rejuvenated team was preseason No. 1 for the 2013 season, and the excitement attracted ESPN to Bloomington for its College GameDay on Feb. 2. IU beat Michigan 81-73, upsetting the then-No. 1 team.
(02/22/13 2:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Seven scholarship players.IU Coach Curt Miller makes sure you know at every IU women’s basketball postgame press conference that he has only seven scholarship players available to play. The team started the season with nine scholarship players and three walk-ons. Four players have since left the program, leaving Miller with a thin roster in his first season in Bloomington. The senior leaders, guard Jasmine McGhee and forward Aulani Sinclair, have both had to play more than 36 minutes per game to compensate. The program is rebuilding. This is what the Miller era looks like in its infancy. It has been a pair of underclassmen that burst onto the scene late who have held the team together. ***Nicole Bell knew for a long time she would be a Cardinal, having committed to Ball State in February of her junior year in high school. Suddenly, then-head coach Kelly Packard resigned in late March 2012. Bell no longer knew where she was going just months before graduation and the start of the college basketball preseason. Bell said the wait to have her National Letter of Intent released and to find a new school was frustrating, but ultimately she is happy she landed at IU. For Miller, it was a blessing. Being able to sign Bell was a coup given how thin his team was at point guard. Miller had recruited her while at Bowling Green but ultimately decided not to sign a point guard in that class.Nonetheless he and his coaching staff remained “a fan of her” at Bowling Green. “We thought in the summertime, considering when she got here, she was certainly a steal,” Miller said. “We also approached it as a stepping stone for the future because we knew that character she is off the court and the student she is off the court.”Her biggest contribution in the early part of the season, however, is her work ethic, Miller said. “We thought, ‘We need to change a lot of things about this program,’ and if we’re gonna bring someone in over the summer, we need her to be that hardest working kid on the team,” Miller said. “And I don’t think anyone would question that Nicole is the hardest working kid on the team.” Under normal circumstances, walk-ons are complimentary pieces to a team’s puzzle. In rebuilding programs, they are essential. Regardless of the situation, it can be painful not to the make team. As a freshman last year, Andrea Mize tried out for the Hoosiers and was initially told she made it. She was cut weeks later. After that, she didn’t even want to touch a basketball. “It’s kind of that gut-wrenching feeling of ‘Could I have done this better?’” she said. “Emotionally, I’m not gonna lie- it drained me a lot. I was very disappointed. I’ve loved this game since I was two.” Her mind began to change when former IU Coach Felisha Legette-Jack was fired in March 2012. She did have the advantage of having gone through the process before. The girls on the team encouraged her to try again this season. Still, she hadn’t touched a ball since she was let go. “I didn’t know if I wanted to continue to put myself out there again,” Mize said. “That was probably the hardest part was, ‘Do I wanna take that risk again not knowing who our coach was going to be?’”***Mize eventually did decide she was able to feel vulnerable again. She would try out for the IU women’s basketball team once more now that Miller had been hired as head coach. At the very least, she had the comfort of knowing that two other walk-on hopefuls were also pushing to make the team. By the end of camp, she, Brionna Arnold and Carmela Roeschlein all made the team.“It was more this time around asking coach Miller, ‘Is this it, or is there always that chance (I get cut)?’” Mize said. “He believed in me and I obviously bought into his system pretty hard. “I knew that soon as he said ‘You’re on the team’ it wasn’t all celebration. It was time to gear up and get better even more.” For Bell, there was no breaking-in period. Former guard Candyce Ussery had missed the majority of the preseason with several injuries while junior starting point guard Andrea Newbauer was recovering from ankle surgery.Neither were close to being in game-shape as IU’s exhibition game vs. Kentucky State on Oct. 30 loomed. Given the start in freshman Nicole Bell’s first collegiate game, she scored nine points, grabbed five rebounds and had three assists in 27 minutes against the Thorobreds. “I’m really proud of Nicole and excited that she’s here,” Miller said. “I’m proud of what she’s done for us this entire year. She’s a warrior and doesn’t shy away from the challenges ahead of her.” Bell said after the game it was her dream come true to be the starting point guard at IU. Now, it has become the norm. ***Newbauer returned in time to start the season opener at Valparaiso. Bell would play a significant role off the bench, though. Bell played no fewer than 14 minutes the next 13 games. She established herself as a reliable outside shooter, and has hit 32 percent of her 3-pointers on the season. Bell made her presence known Nov. 26 against IPFW, scoring 13 points on 4-of-8 3-point shooting. She scored a career-high 16 a month later against Illinois-Chicago. While Bell became more comfortable in her role, her supporting cast dwindled. In November, Roeschlein and Arnold left. In late December, forward Quaneisha McCurty transferred. In the first week of January, Ussery did the same. Almost by definition, walk-ons are like independent contractors — They may or may not be there for the long haul. As someone who made the team on her second try, Mize said she understands that. “We do miss them and we wish them well,” Mize said. “We were just excited to be in the spot in the first place. So I feel like yes, we realize at any point that one of us could somehow leave. “It just makes us respect each other a lot more and try to help each other get to the next level.” Then, a team already decimated by departures received took another hit. The day before IU was set to play Purdue Jan. 31, Newbauer landed on her left wrist in practice and is unlikely to return this season. “Everyone was really silent, it was kind of just shock, like ‘Did that just really happen?’” Bell said. “And everyone was really saddened because she worked so hard and she’s an inspiration that way. We just all felt so sorry for her.” Once again, Bell was thrust into the starting role. Mize is now the only guard backing up Bell, and the only remaining walk-on. Bell has started all six games since and has not played less then 38 minutes in each game. She averaged 6.8 points and 2.5 assists per game coming into Wednesday’s home win against Purdue. The heavy minutes may take its to toll on the freshman, whose season was typically over by this point. “I just went game by game, practice by practice just doing what the team needed me to do and unfortunately Andrea (Newbauer) got hurt,” Bell said. “You don’t really think about it. You just gotta go out there and play, and you’re gonna get tired, and your legs are gonna get heavy but you just gotta try to push through.”***Mize had made the team, but it took a while before she would see live action. Mize rode the bench for the first eight games of the season. She made her debut Dec. 4 against Belmont at Assembly Hall, playing seven minutes without a shot.Mize said she was so nervous she barely remembers the game.With her debut a blur, Mize has a better recollection of the following game at Butler, in which she played a career-high 17 minutes. IU stumbled out of the gate badly, finding itself down 16-4 early in the first half. In came Mize. “At the time I knew why I was being put out there,” she said. “It wasn’t for scoring or anything like that. I wanted to play hard and I could see some of the girls were getting down on themselves.“It was basically just to bring the spirits up and try to do the little things.” Mize finished with one point, an assist and three rebounds. Her stat line did not pop of the page, but her play left a positive impression on her coach. “The thing you love about ‘Drea,’ as we call her, is she’s fearless,” Miller said. “She truly believes out there that she is as good as anyone else and belongs in a league like the Big Ten. “So you like the attitude about the belief in her strengths.”Mize’s minutes have since fluctuated. The next three games, she played five minutes combined. She cracked double digit minutes against Nebraska and Ohio State in mid-January, but has not done so since. Miller said that because Mize’s role has picked up, she has to learn how to deal with a lack of playing time after getting a taste of extended minutes.“Then you crave and want more once you start to feel that, and she’s still got to understand those nights when she doesn’t get as much playing time, that was her role,” he said. “We’re getting great efforts out of her. “You continue to see great strides and she’s getting better and better.” There was a time when Mize was a regular, though. It may even be a big reason why she has to fight for a spot on IU’s team. Mize was a starter all four years at Whiteland High School in Greenwood, Ind. Her senior year, the team lacked post players. Mize unselfishly stepped up and converted from a guard to a forward.Mize said she gained weight and worked on finishing around the rim, meaning her 3-point game has suffered. She is still trying to get back her old body type and regain her shooting form."I feel like that's kind of affecting me this year and I'm really hoping to pick up my offensive side of the ball," Mize said. "It was a lot of working back to the player I want to be, and I'm still not there. But hopefully going into next season I will be."***Miller has a vision to make IU women's basketball nationally relevant. In the meantime, he needs players like Bell and Mize to set the foundation of what he wants the program to look like."We're always going to keep walk-ons," Miller said. "The good thing with her (Mize) is she's been a part of the program, so there is always going to be a place for her to help us out."Both players embody the type of player Miller loves. They hustle, they battle and they scrap. They work hard in practice.They lead by example."With the situation with our numbers the way we are, she's living her dream," Miller said about Mize. "She's an Indiana Hoosier from the state of Indiana. She's living her dream and actually getting to play in games."As for Bell, Miller said he does not know where the team would be without her because of injuries and departures. The future for Indiana women's basketball is already looking brighter. Miller has netted verbal commitments from two talented scorers for the class of 2014, Tyra Buss and Maura Muensterman. As Miller starts to bring in more of his own recruits in the years to come, Bell's and Mize's roles may change yet again.It would be difficult to find two players better-prepared for it."Andrea, and Nicole, and all the guards that currently in the program that will be here in a few years as more and more newcomers come, I don't think they're going to give up their spots easily," Miller said. "They're going to fight and compete for their own fight and compete for their own playing time even though our depth is going to get better over the next few years."
(02/21/13 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU women’s basketball team was embarrassed on the glass and in transition by Purdue the first time the teams met Jan. 31 in West Lafayette, a 59-42 Boilermaker win. A group of veteran players made sure it would not happen again. Senior Jasmine McGhee scored a game-high 26 points, including the game-winning jumper as time expired to upset Purdue 62-61 Thursday night in Assembly Hall. “It feels great,” senior Aulani Sinclair said. “To be able to get that win with my team and us couple seniors and juniors — We’ve been through everything together, the highs and the lows. “Just to do that with them and to be able to check it off my checklist, of being here, it’s just a great feeling.”What made McGhee’s heroics possible, though, was the dirty work done in the paint by an experienced group of post players.The team’s longest-tenured player, fifth-year center Sasha Chaplin, scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds off the bench. Junior forward Milika Taufa scored just two points but grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Forward Linda Rubene, a senior, had six points and seven rebounds. IU outrebounded Purdue 35-33, erasing memories of the first meeting, when Purdue won the battle on the boards 45-30 and 22-8 on the offensive glass. “What really helped was watching that first game with them and seeing how well we played defensively to first shot misses, but we got dominated on the boards,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “We couldn’t complete the defensive possession with a defensive rebound up there. We got a lot of first shot misses. “Our confidence was high that if we could get them out of transition and get them in the half court, that we had a chance to get them to miss some shots. It was a matter of could we be tough enough and rebound against them all night.”Miller said after the loss to Purdue his team was badly outhustled and played sloppily. Twenty IU turnovers led to a 23 points off turnovers for the Boilers. Purdue had 14-2 advantage in second chance points. Thursday, IU took better care of the ball and matched the Boilermaker’s intensity. The Hoosiers committed just 13 turnovers and forced 12 Purdue miscues. The Boilers had a narrow advantage in points off turnovers, 14-12, and tied IU in second-chance points, 14-14. “All week, Coach Miller and the coaching staff preached rebounding, outrebounding, outrebounding,” Chaplin said. “In our first game, that’s the reason that they pulled away and beat us was because of rebounding and turnovers. “Tonight, we controlled what we could do, that’s crash the boards and rebound.”Sinclair is the team’s leader and its leading scorer. But McGhee is a large piece of the puzzle as well. Miller has previously talked about McGhee being the “Robin” to Aulani Sinclair’s “Batman.”This time, their roles flipped. Sinclair responded with an efficient game. Sinclair scored 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. She seemed to come up with a big shot every time Purdue threatened to take control. Then, the ball would be in someone other than Sinclair’s hands with the game on the line. It would have to go to the hot hand. Robin became Batman, and Batman had to be the sidekick. “We knew we hadn’t won against them in a long time and tonight, you could see it in our eyes and just the way we were playing them, we knew were not going to lose this in the final couple of minutes,” she said. “We all dug in deep like we needed to do this entire season.”
(02/20/13 5:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It has been has been more than a month since the IU women’s basketball team last won a game. Maybe a week off and a big crowd will do the trick. The Hoosiers will look to snap their 10 game losing streak and exact revenge when they take on No. 22 Purdue at 7 p.m. today in Assembly Hall during a “PACK THE PLACE” promotion.IU (10-15, 1-11 Big Ten) last took the court one week ago, when they were drubbed by Michigan State 72-42 in East Lansing, Mich. The loss wrapped up a stretch of three games in seven days. “It’s definitely nice to have a week off but I think we’re all ready to come back and to continue fighting,” junior center Simone Deloach said. “We have a couple more games left in the season so it’s just making the most of it and playing to the finish.” The Boilermakers (19-6, 8-4) beat the Hoosiers 59-42 Jan. 31 in West Lafayette, but have scuffled since. Purdue is 1-3 since beating IU and were embarrassed at home by Iowa on Sunday, losing 72-52. They figure to enter Assembly Hall running on pent up frustration and hungry for a win. In the first matchup, the Boilers dominated the glass, 45-30, and 22-8 in offensive rebounds. The main reason for the comfortable Purdue victory was the amount of second-chance opportunities the Boilers manufactured, IU Coach Curt Miller said. “When you go back and watch it, they out-physicaled us, out-hustled us to balls.” Miller said. “They’re guardable if you can get them slowed down in transition, and you can guard their sets.” Forward Sam Ostarello was the most active player in creating those second-chance opportunities. The senior, who leads the Big Ten with 10.2 rebounds per game, grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, five on the offensive glass. “Boxing her out, boxing her out,” Deloach said about how to account for Ostarello in the post. “She’s a phenomenal defensive and offensive rebounder, so it’s just finding her in transition and it’s finding her on the block, wherever she is on the court.” No one needed the week off more than senior forward Aulani Sinclair, Miller said. She has logged a Big Ten-high 37.9 minutes per game and battled flu-like symptoms last week.“I think she’s the person that’s going to benefit most from having the bye date,” Miller said. “She seems to have a little bit of her legs back under her.”Sinclair scored just nine points on 4-of-15 shooting and did not attempt a free throw in the last two games combined. Sinclair, the team’s leading scorer, struggles when she fails to get to the charity stripe. In the previous four games in which Sinclair did not attempt a free throw, she averaged 4.3 points per game on 6-of-46 (13 percent) shooting. “If she can’t get to the rim and can’t get to the foul line, she’s relegated to a jump shooter,” Miller said. “We need to supplement that and get her to the foul line, but a lot of teams are doing a good job of not fouling (IU’s players) and keeping them away from getting penetration.”
(02/11/13 3:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Wisconsin women’s basketball team used a 20-5 run between the 10:40 and 3:24 marks of the first half to take control of the game early and hand IU its ninth consecutive loss, beating the Hoosiers 65-53 Sunday in Madison, Wis. “I thought they were fantastic in the first 20-24 minutes of the game,” IU Coach Curt Miller said of the Badgers. “Their movement on offense and ability to share the ball and set screens, it really, really hurt our defense.”IU got within 10 on a 3-pointer by senior Jasmine McGhee midway through the second half, but it was as close as the Hoosiers (10-14, 1-10 Big Ten) would get the rest of the way.The Badgers (11-13, 3-8) were lead by junior guard Morgan Paige, who scored a game-high 17 on 4-of-9 three-point shooting. Sophomore Jacki Gulczynski (15 points) and junior Cassie Rochel (12) rounded out the trio of double-figure scorers for Wisconsin. Down 44-30 at the half, IU fell behind by 18 early in the second half before twice cutting it to 15 over the next six minutes. After Paige split a pair of free throws to make it 57-39 with 12:22 remaining, IU rattled off an 8-0 run during the next 3:16. IU senior Aulani Sinclair got things started by feeding junior Milika Taufa on a slip to the basket. Sinclair then found senior Linda Rubene wide open at the top of the arc, who buried her fourth three-pointer of the season. McGhee capped the run with 9:06 to go, spotting up from the right wing and nailing the three to cut the Badger lead to 10, 57-47. In the following possession, Wisconsin’s Rochel showed why she’s one of the Big Ten’s best interior players. Freshman Nicole Bauman and Paige each missed a shot, and Rochel was there to grab the offensive rebound both times. She then fed a cutting Bauman, who finished the layup and put the Badgers back up 12. Rochel, the Big Ten’s fifth-leading rebounder with eight boards per game, grabbed a game-high 15. The Badgers won the battle on the glass 38-32 and points in the paint, 30-20. While Rochel was wreaking havoc down low, the Hoosiers struggled to convert near the basket when they needed it most. Following the Rochel-to-Bauman basket, freshman Nicole Bell missed a layup high off the glass, but junior Simone Deloach grabbed the offensive rebound with IU trailing 59-47 and 7:40 left. Deloach was too short on the putback, but redshirt senior Sasha Chaplin kept the possession live by grabbing Deloach’s miss. She too was short on her put back attempt and the Hoosiers blew a golden opportunity to make a final run at the Badgers. “Low and behold, I’m not sure our zone defense was fantastic but they scored 13 points in the final 15 minutes of the game, and we could just never make a run to make the game interesting,” Miller said. “We’re so limited offensively that when you get behind the way we did, it’s hard for us to make a run.” McGhee scored nine of her team-high 14 points in the second half on 4-of-8 shooting in the period. She finished 6-of-15 from the floor and 2-of-5 on threes for the game. The Hoosiers and Badgers traded baskets during the first 9:20 of the game. IU took its second and final lead of the game when Taufa hit a jumper to make 17-16 IU with 12:53 left in the first half. After a McGhee bucket tied it at 19, the Badgers went on what turned out to be the decisive run and put the Hoosiers away before the break. Taufa, a junior, was the only Hoosier besides McGhee to score in double figures. She chipped in 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting and a team-high seven rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench. Sinclair came into the game as the team’s leading scorer at nearly 17 points per game, but scored just three points on 1-of-7 shooting. “I just thought (Wisconsin) made things as difficult for her as possible,” Miller said. “Aulani looked tired tonight and passed on some shots she’s capable of taking and making. “When you’re so limited offensively and you can’t get your top player shots and good looks, it makes for a long night.”
(02/04/13 2:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Curt Miller is known for his fiery coaching style and on-court antics. But when the calls repeatedly went Ohio State’s way Sunday, he and his staff had had enough. Miller and his bench picked up technical fouls within a minute of each other in the second half that allowed Ohio State to extend its lead to 10 points. The Buckeyes survived the ensuing IU comeback effort to beat the Hoosiers 70-56 in Assembly Hall. “Certainly technicals can be strategic,” Miller said. “They can be timely to fire up your team and all that. That’s my first technical in the Big Ten. “I would have liked to got my money’s worth, but I didn’t.”With 13:14 to go and IU down 48-41, Miller argued a foul by Simone Deloach near the basket on OSU’s Tayler Hill, who split her technical free throws and made both of her regular foul shots. Two possessions later, an assistant IU coach blurted “ridiculous” when Sasha Chaplin was not awarded a foul call on an in-close miss. The second technical led to two more free throws by Hill, followed by a layup by Darryce Moore that made it 54-41 Buckeyes with 12:08 remaining. The technicals did in fact give the Hoosiers (10-12, 1-8 Big Ten) the jolt they needed to make it a game. IU responded with a 10-4 run over the next 3:20 that cut Ohio State’s lead back to single digits, 58-51, with 8:48 to go. “First off, coach was just sticking up for us,” freshman Nicole Bell said. “You know, when he’s such a passionate person, it kind of helps us on the court. We became fired up and we really tried to hit a run, so I definitely think that gave us some momentum.”Aualni Sinclair got things started with a 20-foot jumper from the top of the key. On the next possession, she found Simone Deloach slipping to the basket for the easy two. Later in the run, Deloach returned the favor. She missed her initial attempt underneath the basket, but crashed to the floor to corral the miss after it trickled out to the wing. While on the ground, Deloach fed Sinclair, who drained a three that made it 58-51 OSU with 9:24 to go. “Her hard work got the loose ball and the kickout to me for the shot,” Sinclair said. “All that happened because of Simone and her effort. We just need that from everyone.” Then, it was Tayler Hill time. Hill scored a game-high 24 points. She scored six of Ohio State’s eight points from 7:55 to 5:31 to extend the Buckeyes’ lead to 66-53, essentially sealing the game and ending any hopes of an IU comeback.The run started when Amber Stokes grabbed a long rebound and immediately tossed it to Hill, who raced down the court and finished with the scoop in transition. Two possessions later, Hill stripped Sinclair and went coast-to-coast for another fast break bucket, in which the Buckeyes enjoyed a 12-0 advantage. “Every time we made a bit of a run at them, to make it a little bit uncomfortable, Tayler Hill came up with a big play,” Miller said. “It wasn’t the only time in the game we got to single digits that you see the next basket be by Tayler Hill. And that’s what great players do.”IU battled with Ohio State throughout a first half that saw six ties and eight lead changes. Ohio State took a 10-point lead with 1:13 to go when Hill hit a leaner in the lane and looked determined to put the game away in the first half. But Sinclair and Nicole Bell responded with back-to-back threes in the final minute to bringing IU back within single digits, 34-30, at the break.
(02/01/13 3:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Finding themselves down just six at halftime, the IU women’s basketball team was in striking distance of an upset of No. 14 Purdue Thursday night in West Lafayette, hoping to beat its rival for the first time in eight tries. Time and time again, the Boilermaker frontcourt deflated any of hopes of that happening. Purdue pounded the Hosiers 22-8 on the offensive glass and 45-30 overall, seemingly grabbing an offensive rebound every time IU played a tough defensive sequence, and beat IU 59-42 at Mackey Arena. “It was a very physical game,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “They let a lot of contact go around the rim and because of that, it was a tough finishing night for post players.” The Hoosiers (10-11, 1-7 Big Ten) held the Boilermakers’ top three scorers to a combined 15 points on 6-of-30 shooting but couldn’t contain Purdue’s supporting cast. “We did a fantastic job on Courtney Moses tonight and Drey Mingo, and I can’t be more proud,” Miller said. “Now, Purdue is at a state of our program unlike ours where their depth is very dangerous, and you have to give April Wilson and Taylor Manuel, their talented freshman class, credit for stepping up.”Wilson scored 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting in 24 minutes off the bench, Manuel added 11 and senior Sam Osterello led the way with 14 points and 10 rebounds to carry the Boilers (18-3, 7-1). Linda Rubene paced the Hoosiers with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting and leading scorer Aulani Sinclair got back on track by scoring 11 (4-of-9), but the rest of the team shot 22 percent (7-of-31) from the field. IU executed its offense well in the first half, getting 14 points in the paint by exploiting the Boilermaker’s aggressive perimeter defense and hitting post players on slips to the basket. The Hoosiers went to the locker room down just 32-26 at the break. Defensively, the Hoosiers limited the Boilers to nearly 11 points below their season average and 32 percent shooting. Good defense, which has become a staple of this IU team — they are the only Big Ten team to not allow 70 points to a conference opponent — was negated by sloppy play and mental errors, particularly to open the second half. However, the Hoosiers started the second half with four turnovers in their first nine possessions. They missed their first seven shots from the floor and shot just 29 percent (6-of-21) in the period.IU committed 20 turnovers, 13 in the second half, leading to 23 points off turnovers for the Boilermakers. The team did not score their first points of the second half until Sinclair was fouled and split a pair of free throws to make it 36-27 IU 14:48 remaining. “Just people when they’re open — gotta just step up, hit shots,” Sinclair said. “Milika (Taufa) and Linda (Rubene) did a good job tonight, just shooting the three and having the confidence to shoot it when they’re open.”A 3-pointer from the left wing by Sinclair got the Hoosiers back within six, 38-32 Purdue, with 12:14 to go. It was as close as they would get the rest of the game. Mingo, Purdue’s second-leading scorer at 12.5 points per game, got her only points of the game when she buried a three with 10:29 to go. The make put the Boilers up 41-32, and they would not lead by less than that margin the rest of the way. Junior starting point guard is out indefinitely with a broken left wrist. Freshman Nicole Bell started in her place and scored four points on 2-of-7 shooting in a career-high 38 minutes.
(01/31/13 7:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>They will try to stop the bleeding, but they will have to do it on the road against a nationally ranked opponent.When the IU women’s basketball team plays No. 14 Purdue at 6:30 p.m. today in West Lafayette, it will be looking to snap several dubious streaks against one of the Big Ten’s toughest teams. IU (10-10, 1-6 Big Ten) comes into the game on a five-game losing streak, has not scored more than 50 points since beating Northwestern on Jan. 6 and has not shot at least 40 percent from the field since Jan. 3 at Michigan. “We just know that it’s a big game overall,” senior center Sasha Chaplin said. “No other game matters this season, but when it comes to playing Purdue, it’s the archrival. Regardless of what slump we’re in, we know we need to shake it and go out there and have confidence.” Purdue (17-3, 6-1) is coming off a double overtime road win against Michigan State on Sunday and will enjoy the familiarity of Mackey Arena, where the rival Boilermakers are 8-0. Most important to slowing down a potent Purdue attack — the Boilers rank fourth in scoring offense in the Big Ten, averaging nearly 70 points per game — is forcing the team to play half-court offense, IU Coach Curt Miller said. “They’re a tremendous running team and can run you right out of the building in a hurry,” he said. “We’ve gotta get back in transition, first and foremost. That’s the first way to control tempo defensively.“We believe we’ve gotta hold them about 15 points under their season average of points to give ourselves a chance, and that’s asking a lot.” The main contributors to Purdue’s high-octane offense are juniors Courtney Moses, a 5-foot-6 guard who leads the team with 14.4 points per game, Drey Mingo (12.5 PPG) and KK Houser (11 PPG). To the Hoosiers’ credit, they allow just 58 points per game, fourth-best in conference. Those defensive efforts, however, have often gone by the wayside because of the team’s offensive struggles. In particular, the Hoosier frontcourt has seen its production dip. Against Northwestern on Monday, starters Simone Deloach and Linda Rubene combined to make just one basket (1-of-11 shooting) for the second straight game.“I still think that they’re taking shots that they’re capable of making,” Miller said. “They’ve got to be able to prove to themselves night in and night out that they can go and score against elite post kids in the Big Ten.” Senior forward Aulani Sinclair, who leads the team in scoring at 17.1 points per game, is also mired in a prolonged shooting slump. In her last five games, Sinclair has shot 22 percent (15-of-67) and averaged 8.4 points per contest. It is possible fatigue is contributing to the slump. Sinclair has played at least 38 minutes in each of the last seven games and averages 37.7 per game. She refuses to use it as an excuse, though. “When I’m tired I have to fight through, because I know that the team needs me, and we really don’t have any subs to come in,” she said. “I know every four minutes is gonna be a media timeout ... so I just have to work very hard in those four minute periods, and then I get a break.”
(01/25/13 5:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Once again, Indiana hung with No. 23 Michigan, one of the Big Ten’s best teams. Once again, the Hoosiers were doomed by poor shooting performance and had too much ground to make up, too late. The Wolverines started the second half on a 6-2 run and never looked back, extinguishing several IU comeback attempts to beat the Hoosiers 61-43 Thursday night in Assembly Hall. “I haven’t sat up here a lot this year and felt the helplessness and the disappointment that I have tonight,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “I don’t have a lot of answers after that game.”IU (10-9, 1-5 Big Ten) shot just 26 percent for the game.Senior Aulani Sinclair scored a team-high 14 points but was smothered by the Michigan defense all night, encountering consistent traps and double teams. She finished 5-of-15 from the field. IU’s offense was particularly hampered by the performance of its post players. A frontcourt of Simone Deloach, Linda Rubene, Sasha Chaplin and Milika Taufa combined for just seven points on 3-of-20 shooting. Deloach and Rubene, the starting forwards, did not make a basket after 12 seconds into the game. “(It was) just so frustrating to shoot the type of percentage that we did inside the arc,” Miller said. “We can’t stop runs, and we can’t battle through some of the droughts better because we have such a hard time scoring.”IU shot 7 of 21 (33 percent) from beyond the arc, meeting Miller’s goal of making at least seven threes against the Wolverines’ 2-3 zone.Perhaps most frustrating for IU, however, was the plethora of misses that were good looks, many within five feet of the basket. It felt like almost a repeat of IU’s loss to Michigan on Jan. 3. “We knew we were gonna have some open shots,” Sinclair said. “Tonight it felt like we hit some more and had more opportunities and more people were shooting the ball, which is better for us, once again we just have to find a way to put the ball in the basket.” IU stayed even with Michigan through the first 11-plus minutes, and then the Wolverines started to pull away. Jenny Ryan, Rachel Sheffer and Sam Arnold each hit 3-point shots over the next 4:33 as Michigan extended its lead to 30-20 with 4:17 to go in the half. The Wolverines entered the locker room up 34-17 and started the second half on a 6-2 run. They led 52-28 with 11:07 remaining, to take their largest lead of the game at 24 points. "We worked really hard on what we thought was a really good gameplan and we couldn’t make enough shots … and our gameplan was never able to take shape,” Miller said. “It’s so important for us to play from the front. We can’t play from behind with the way our offense is.” The Hoosiers showed some life, however, responding with a 10-0 run during the next 1:22. Sinclair hit back-to-back buckets and freshman guard Nicole Bell hit a long 3-pointer to make it 52-38 with 9:45 remaining. Bell was one of the few bright spots for IU, scoring 11 points on 3-of-7 3-point shooting. “Especially against the zone they’re always shading towards Aulani,” she said. “So to try to help open up the zone and get better ball movement I have to be a scoring option.”After Michigan extended its lead to 18 points with 7:06 to go, IU made a final push. Sinclair hit a three and Bell a floater in the lane that made it 56-43 Michigan with 4:32 left. In the end, it was too little too late. In particular, Sinclair said IU has to do a better job guarding when a play breaks down and limit offensive rebounds. “Once we started boxing them out for that stretch, it really helped up,” she said. “But in the long run we just have to stop having these mental breakdowns and just fight the entire time.”
(01/24/13 5:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For one half, the IU women’s basketball team looked like it could run with an elite conference team. In its conference opener Jan. 3 at Michigan, IU limited the Wolverines’ three leading scorers to a combined 28 percent shooting performance and was down just seven points at halftime. After a dominant second-half performance, the Wolverines won 65-48. This time around, the Hoosiers (10-8, 1-4) will look to fix the half-by-half inconsistency that has plagued them all season when they get another crack at No. 23 Michigan (15-3, 4-1) at 7 p.m. today in Assembly Hall. “Last game against Michigan we played with them in the first half, and then in the first four minutes of the second half, we came out slow,” junior guard Andrea Newbauer said. “Fast starts are extremely important for us.” The Wolverines are led by a trio of seniors. Guard Kate Thompson leads the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game, followed by center Rachel Sheffer (12.8) and guard Jenny Ryan (11.1). In the first matchup, Ryan struggled, finishing 3-of-14 from the floor. Thompson was limited to eight points on 3-of-8 shooting and Sheffer was just 3-of-10. All three, though, shot at least 36 percent from long range. Thompson tops the group with a 46 percent mark, the second-best in conference. “Regardless of who we try to shut down, we want to shut all three of them down at the arc and make them go two-by-two-by-two,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. On the offensive side, IU could benefit from a break-out game by Newbauer. The starting point guard is averaging just 1.4 points and 2.5 assists per game while turning it over 2.1 times a contest. “I think I just have to be more aggressive,” Newbauer said. “I have to make defenders guard me more, maybe look for my shot a little bit more. If I look for my shot, I’ll open up my teammates, and I feel like I haven’t been doing as good of a job as I could be.” The Wolverines feature a 2-3 zone that Miller likened to Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim’s vaunted 2-3. If Newbauer can attack the gaps in the zone, though, she may be able to get open looks for her teammates, Miller said. Finding a pair of her sharpshooting teammates could be paramount to beating Michigan’s zone. Freshman guard Nicole Bell has been a threat from deep off the bench, shooting 30 percent on 3-point shots.Senior Aulani Sinclair is fifth in the Big Ten in scoring with 18 points per game and 3-point shooting at 41.7 percent. Both are team-highs. She enters the game in a shooting slump, however. During the last three games, Sinclair is averaging 8.7 points per game while shooting 23 percent from the floor. “I just think shooters go through stretches,” Miller said. “You can tell even in practice Aulani has battled a stretch here where she’s lost a little confidence. “She’s shot so well on the year, so we can’t have her lose confidence, and just keep firing away.” The Hoosiers will try to snap their three-game losing streak in their first rematch of the season. A win would give Curt Miller his first against a ranked opponent as IU’s coach.
(01/17/13 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Only 22 Hoosier women’s basketball players have reached the milestone, but senior forward Aulani Sinclair is more focused on team success. “It will just come when it comes,” she said. “I’m more worried about a win than getting my points right now.”Sinclair enters tonight’s game at Ohio State eight points shy of 1,000 for her career and will try to help the Hoosiers (10-6, 1-2) get back on track against the buckeyes (10-7, 0-4) at 7 p.m. today in Value City Arena, Columbus, Ohio. Despite starting conference play 0-4, Sinclair said Ohio State cannot be taken lightly. “We know they can definitely contend with anyone in the Big Ten, so we can’t take them for granted,” she said. The Buckeyes struggle despite their potent offense. Ohio State averages 71.9 points per game, which is the fourth-best in the Big Ten, and shoots a conference-high 47.2 percent from the floor.Buckeyes senior guard Tayler Hill leads the league in scoring with 21.3 points per game. Hill and her fellow OSU guards like to get out in transition and must be contained out on the break, IU Associate Head Coach Chris Day said. “They are tremendous after a missed basket,” Day said. “They are like a track team. Those three guards are gone.” The IU offense will benefit from the recoveries of center Sasha Chaplin and guard Jasmine McGhee, who is second on the team in scoring at 11.6 points per game. Both Chaplin and McGhee nursed injuries last week and played at less-than-perfect health.With Chaplin at full strength, the Hoosiers are be better prepared for a rugged battle in the paint. Six of Ohio State’s players are 6-feet-2-inches tall or taller. “We think Sasha is probably our best scorer on the block” Day said. “When you’re fighting for your lives, you love your shots to come from inside.”Junior center Simone Deloach excelled during Chaplin’s absence. In the team’s three conference games, Deloach has averaged 10 points and 7.7 rebounds in 27 minutes per contest.Day said it’s possible she’ll get her first start of the season against the Buckeyes. “She’s certainly playing really well enough to earn it,” Day said. “We see it in practice, so we’ll give her runs with the first group.”
(01/09/13 4:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>No one knows who created the nickname, but it has certainly stuck.“I think it was a team effort because you just look at her, and she’s been here forever, and everything she’s gone through — it’s like you’re the mother of this team – just like ‘grandma,’” junior forward Simone Deloach said.Some time in October, or maybe even before that, IU women’s basketball players dubbed fifth-year senior center Sasha Chaplin “grandma” because of her experience and presence as a wise student athlete always willing to lend a hand.“I came in with absolutely no knowledge of college or being a student athlete,” Deloach said. “I looked to her, and she came to be as the big sister role, and she taught me the ropes.“I have become a better student athlete because of her.”Chaplin has been around for so long due, in large part, to a myriad of lower leg injuries that cut two of her seasons short. During her freshman year in 2008, she tore her ACL eight games in and missed the rest of the season.Two years later, she tore it again while recovering from a stress fracture and missed virtually the entire 2010-11 season.Chaplin said the injuries changed her outlook for the better.“Being a freshman...I would just go out there and just play kind of blowing it off a little bit,” she said. “Then, once my injury happened, the game could have truly gotten taken away from me.“And this is a time for myself to change my outlook about basketball, about life, because you can have something one day, and the next day it can be gone from you in just an instant.”Deloach rehabbed alongside Chaplin before the 2011-12 season and got to see Chaplin’s determination to get back on the court firsthand.“It sucks being injured,” Deloach said. “Being in that experience with her, I got to know her on a different level because you see her fight and her drive to get back and help the team. It’s amazing. She’s really strong.”Finally healthy, Chaplin’s presence in the program has never been felt this strongly. IU Coach Curt Miller said Chaplin rarely practiced last year because the team had to manage her health. Now, she’s fully immersed on the court.“Former teams have gotten Sasha’s leadership because she’s a veteran, but they didn’t get it on a day-in and day-out basis,” Miller said. “She’s always had respect, but now it’s even better because she has been as healthy, knock on wood, as she’s been most of her career.”Miller continues to manage Chaplin’s minutes to keep her fresh down the stretch. In 14 games, Chaplin has averaged 6.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in 13.4 minutes per game. Chaplin said she has accepted her limited role.“I’m fortunate, after two ACL injuries, to still be here playing basketball, doing something I love and being able to help a whole bunch of my teammates out,” she said.As the season progresses, Miller said he anticipates playing her 20-plus minutes when the situation calls for it.“We still can’t play Sasha the amount of sustained or back-to-back minutes as we’d like, but we can’t ask for much more in the burst of minutes that she plays,” he said.Miller lauded Chaplin as the team’s best post-finisher, a good rebounder and an on-court leader. More importantly, he said, she sets an example for younger players.Chaplin received her bachelor’s degree in informatics last May and is currently pursuing a master’s in human computer interaction and design.“She’s got a really good balance, and younger players can look at her, where you can still be really driven and passionate about basketball outside of it, and have a successful collegiate career both on the court and off the court,” Miller said.When Chaplin does finally move on from IU, she won’t have gaudy numbers and or make the IU Hall of Fame. She will still leave behind a legacy.“When we got here, more people asked about Sasha than any other player on the team in terms of the fans and the season-ticket holders,” Miller said. “She’s left her legacy as much off the court as she has on the court.“The fans really love her and identify with her.”
(01/07/13 5:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Senior forward Aulani Sinclair sank 10 of 11 free throws in the last 5:47 as part of her game-high 31 points, leading IU (10-5, 1-1) to fend off Northwestern (8-7, 0-2) 68-64 Sunday afternoon. The win in Assembly Hall gave IU Coach Curt Miller his first conference victory as a Big Ten coach. “Really gutty win,” Miller said. “I don’t think there’s an analyst or prognosticator that thought we could win a game in the Big Ten this year. “That’s a big win for us in our (conference) home opener.” Sinclair shot seven of 13 from the field and was three of 8 on 3-point attempts. She also went 14-of-15 from the line and scored 10 of the team’s final 13 points. As for Sinclair’s secret to making clutch foul shots, she simply told herself, “Don’t miss.” “Free throws are big for us ... and I knew down the stretch it would really matter and it was going to be a close game,” she said. The Hoosiers finished 18 of 20 on free throw shots. IU led 35-27 at halftime but let the Wildcats claw back several times thanks to nine second-half turnovers and questionable shot selection at times. Northwestern took its first lead since getting the game’s first basket on a Lauren Douglas three that made it 44-43 Wildcats with 13:34 to go, capping a 17-8 run to start the second half. IU countered with a 10-3 run between the 8:07 and 3:25 marks, retaking the lead, 60-51. However, the Wildcats would not go quietly, using court pressure to create turnovers and cut into IU’s lead. Another Douglas three, this time with 1:38 left in the game, made it 62-60. “I thought we lost our aggressiveness and we were playing not to lose instead of going for it to win,” Miller said. “We were tentative and going for reversals and never up the floor passes to kind of break the pressure.”Senior guard Jasmine McGhee was fouled with 1:09 to go and hit both free throws to put IU up 66-62, but NU’s Dannielle Diamant answered on the other end with a layup. On the ensuing possession, guard Andrea Newbauer gave the crowd of 2,322 a scare when she crossed the timeline but tossed it back to Jasmine McGhee, who wasn’t able to jump over half-court in time. The Hoosiers were called for the backcourt violation, giving the Wildcats the ball with 41 seconds remaining and IU clinging to a two-point lead. Luckily for Newbauer, NU forward Kendall Hackney threw the ball away on the ensuing possession, Sinclair was fouled with eight seconds left and made both free throws, and the Hoosiers could finally celebrate. “There was relief that we didn’t give up that big lead but pure excitement for this team,” Miller said. “We’ve worked really hard to put ourselves in a position to be kind of the party crasher, be the underdog with nothing to lose because there’s not a lot of expectations.”Miller has challenged his team to outhustle opponents all year, and it seemed to pay off against the Wildcats. The game featured several wild scrums in which the ball changed hands multiple times while players dove on the floor in an attempt to secure possession. None were crazier than when IU came away with the ball and turned into a successful 3-on-1 fast break that made it a 54-48 lead with 6:15 remaining.“Not all year have we won the 50-50 balls, and in close games those 50-50 balls make all the world of difference,” Miller said. “Tonight we seemed to get more 50-50 balls and some of those scrambles that could have gone either way.”IU also received a boost off the bench from junior forward Simone Deloach. She scored eight points while grabbing a career-high 15 rebounds in 34 minutes, helping IU outrebound Northwestern 42-31, and 15 to 8 on the offensive glass. Deloach’s performance could have hardly come at a better time. Senior center Sasha Chaplin sat out with a concussion and 6-foot-6 inches center Quaneisha McCurty transferred to Florida State in late December, leaving Miller with only three healthy post players. Miller said he did not want to burn freshman Jocelyn Mousty’s redshirt by playing her, and that Deloach came up big on a day when starters Linda Rubene and Milika Taufa picked up three first-half fouls. “I just kind of stepped up in my role,” Deloach said. “Of course we knew we were down a player but I feel like it was a team effort.”Senior guard Jasmine McGhee added 14 points for the Hoosiers, playing after rolling an ankle about midway through the second half. “Tonight she played the Robin role of Aulani’s Batman and we need that,” Miller said. “She played bang up today, and that’s what seniors do. That’s what you hope senior leaders do.”
(01/04/13 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>ByJjoe Popelyjpopely@indiana.eduWhen IU and Northwestern women’s basketball teams square off at 2 p.m. Sunday in Assembly Hall, the game will feature a couple of teams inthe Big Ten cellar. Last season’s Hoosiers finished with just six wins. At 14-16 overall and 4-13 in conference, the 11th place Wildcats had only IU between them and last place. Fast forward to this season, and the picture looks a little different. IU (9-5, 0-1) surpassed last season’s win total on Dec. 16 by beating SIU-Edwardsville 72-56 and finished the non-conference slate on a three-game winning streak, its second winning streak of three or more games this season. The Wildcats, meanwhile, are trending downward. After starting the season 6-0, Northwestern (8-6, 0-1) has lost six of its last eight games. Both teams struggled to shoot last season, particularly from long range. IU was a Big Ten-worst at 28 percent on threes, while Northwestern was barely better at 30 percent. “This year hopefully we’ll have a much better shooting team,” Northwestern Coach Joe McKeown said at Big Ten Media Days in October. “We’re going to spread the floor out more, chuck and duck a little bit.” So far, that strategy has not paid off. Northwestern is shooting 30 percent from deep on the season, second-worst in the Big Ten.The game could very well be decided on the perimeter.While the Hoosiers do not shoot particularly well from the floor (40 percent, 10th in conference) and are last in scoring with 61.2 points per game, they have been above average when shooting threes. IU shoots 34.3 percent from beyond the arc, good for sixth in the Big Ten, and limits opponents to just 27 percent three-point shooting. Freshman Nicole Bell has been a threat on the perimeter all season, often getting her threes in bunches. She is shooting 33 percent from deep. Leading scorer Aulani Sinclair paces IU with 44 percent three-point shooting and 40 made threes. Those two have a good chance to light it up against the Wildcats’ porous perimeter. Northwestern has allowed teams to shoot 33 percent from three-point land, worst in the Big Ten. On offense, the Wildcats feature a balanced scoring attack with all five starters averaging double figures. Senior forward Kendall Hackney leads the way with 14.5 points per game and is second on the team with 6.5 rebounds per game. Northwestern was one of the few Big Ten teams IU came close to beating last year. The Wildcats took the first game in Bloomington, 69-61. On Jan. 29, 2012 in Evanston, Ill., the Hoosiers erased a 10-point deficit with 5:11 left in the game and got within three with 47 seconds remaining. The Wildcats held on to win 68-61. Northwestern has struggled on the road this season, going 1-3, though the team nearly scored a road upset of No. 9 Penn State on Thursday. IU, meanwhile, is 7-2 at home.
(12/10/12 3:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A last-second three-pointer by senior forward Aulani Sinclair fell short at the buzzer, spoiling a furious second-half IU comeback as the Butler Bulldogs escaped with a 59-56 win Sunday afternoon at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Senior forward Linda Rubene got the ball in the low post with fewer than five seconds to go but went for the two instead of kicking it out for the game-tying three. She missed her in-close attempt, got it back and kicked out to Sinclair, whose shot hit the bottom of the iron.“In women’s basketball, when you make the decision to take a two with less than six seconds left, you’re pushing the possibility of getting a good shot after you foul,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “Aulani is capable of making contested shots, but unfortunately, it was a really tough shot to try to send it to overtime.”IU (6-4) shot 48 percent in the second half and outscored the Bulldogs (4-5) 31-19 in the period. The Hoosiers started the second half on an 11-4 run through the 13:37 mark to cut the lead to single digits, 44-36, for the first time since there was 10:51 left in the first half and Butler up 18-10.With 10:07 left, a Jasmine McGhee jumper made it 45-40. The senior guard scored a team-high 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 2-of-4 from 3-point range. “This is the kind of game she’s capable of, especially when they’re really concentrating on Aulani,” Miller said. “We’ve got to have Jasmine step up like this.”Butler would extend the lead to as many as 10, but IU clawed back again. An up-and-under by senior center Sasha Chaplin made it 55-51 Butler. Two possessions later, a Sinclair turnaround jumper cut it to two, 55-53 Butler, with 2:25 remaining.After Taylor Schippers hit two foul shots to extend the lead to 59-53 Butler with 30 seconds to go, McGhee hit a clutch three to bring it back within three, 59-56.Butler’s Mandy McDivitt was fouled with 20 seconds left but missed both free throws, setting up the wild finish.“In terms of tonight, if you told me after that first half performance that we would have an opportunity to have a shot at the buzzer to send it to overtime, I would have thought you were nuts,” Miller said. IU’s defense suffocated Daress McClung in the second half, limiting her to four points on 1-of-9 shooting by throwing multiple defenders at her almost every possession. It was all Bulldogs and McClung in a first half dominated by Butler, however. McClung finished with a game-high 21 points, 17 coming in the first half. IU coughed up 12 turnovers in the first half and shot 37.9 percent (11-of-29) from the field. The turnovers led to easy transition buckets for the Bulldogs, who gave the IU defense fits with dribble-drive penetration that led to easy layups for McClung and fellow forward Amanda Raker. Raker had 10 first-half points on 4-of-5 shooting, most of those attempts coming within three feet of the basket. Meanwhile, Sinclair scored just two points in the first half on 1-of-4 shooting.The Bulldogs entered the locker room up 40-25.“I thought the reason why they had 25 in the first half is because of Mandy (McDivitt) and the way she played on Sinclair,” Butler Coach Beth Couture said. “Scouting her, I’m like, ‘Wow, she really can shoot in someone’s face,’ and I thought (McDivitt) did a tremendous job on stopping her.”Sinclair finished with four points on 2-of-8 shooting, missing all four of her three-point attempts. Though Miller said his team started to win hustle plays in the second half, Butler grabbed 17 offensive rebounds that turned into 17 second-chance points and won the fast break battle 6-2. “We played better when we just checked it up, and both teams played in the half court,” Miller said. “But between fast break points and second chance points, they beat us.”
(12/07/12 2:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming off consecutive losses following a six-game winning streak, the IU women’s basketball team will look to start a new winning streak when it takes on Butler 2 p.m. Sunday in Indianapolis. The Hoosiers (6-3) will try to solve its shooting woes against the Bulldogs (3-5), who have had their fair share of offensive struggles.For the Bulldogs, it has been a case of hot and cold on offense. In its three wins, Butler averaged 68 points; in five losses, the team averaged 57.2 points. Most recently, Butler lost on the road Wednesday to IU Coach Curt Miller’s former team, Bowling Green, 67-47.The Bulldogs are 2-1 at Hinkle Fieldhouse, however, and will look to shut down an IU team that has not shot better than 40 percent or scored at least 60 points since it beat IPFW 64-47 on Nov. 26, four games ago. IU allowed 58 points in its four-point loss to Belmont Tuesday, but shot so poorly in the first half (28 percent) its late comeback fell short, and the team suffered consecutive losses for the first time this season. “Giving up 58 points in a game — and some of that there at the end was fouls — most nights is winnable in most programs,” Miller said. “But we can’t score, so it’s hard to win even when you give up 56 to 58 points a game.”Aulani Sinclair, 19 points, and Nicole Bell, 11 points, were the only players to score in double figures against the Bruins. Bell has been a valuable piece off the bench, taking some of the pressure off of Sinclair, IU’s leading scorer with 18.4 points per game. “She made some tough plays and made some shots,” Miller said. “Ironically, I don’t think it’s a surprise. We brought her here because she makes shots. That’s what you have to do.”Sinclair has attempted at least 12 shots in every game except one, Dec. 2 vs. Cleveland State, and has led the team in scoring in seven of IU’s nine games. The offense figures to run through her once again. Fellow senior Jasmine McGhee is the team’s second leading scorer with 9.9 points per game but is shooting just 29.2 percent. Starting forwards Milika Taufa and Linda Rubene are chipping in 6.2 points per game apiece. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, feature a balanced scoring attack. Sophomore guard Taylor Schippers leads the way with 18.1 points per game, junior forward Daress McClung follows with 16 per game and sophomore guard Hannah Douglas rounds out Butler’s big three with 10.2 per game. Though Butler uses a trio of scorers and IU relies heavily on Sinclair to generate offense, the teams have achieved remarkably similar results. The Hoosiers shoot 39.4 percent from the field and average a Big Ten-worst 58.4 points per game, while the Bulldogs shoot 38.2 percent and average 61.2 points per game. The matchup is the first between the teams since IU beat Butler 63-41 at home on Dec. 9, 2008. The Hoosiers lead the all-time series 4-0.
(12/05/12 11:28pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU women’s basketball (6-3) lost to Belmont Tuesday in Assembly Hall, the first time the team has lost consecutive games this season. Below are news and notes from Tuesday’s game that did not make the recap story. Live by Sinclair, die by SinclairThrough nine games, senior forward Aulani Sinclair has been IU’s primary scoring option. She leads the team with 18.4 points per game, 24 made threes and 45 percent 3-point shooting. Recently, though, it has been a tale of two halves for Sinclair. For the first 20 minutes and 14 seconds Tuesday, Sinclair looked like she had completely forgotten about her dud the previous game (5 points on 1-of-8 shooting) against Cleveland State. She lit up the Bruins with 17 first-half points by shooting 5-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 from the line. After Sinclair scored the first bucket of the second half, Belmont’s Katie Brooks shut her down. Brooks gave Sinclair almost no space to work with, limiting IU’s leading scorer to 1-of-9 shooting in the second half. “In the second half they knew I was looking to score so I had to fight for every opportunity that I had, and she was on me the entire time,” Sinclair said. With no other player averaging double-figure scoring, IU will have to continue to lean on Sinclair for offense even when she is struggling or well-guarded. “When you have a limited offensively talented team, Aulani’s bad shots are better than other player’s open shots,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “Percentage-wise she’s going to make more bad shots than our kids are going to make wide-open shots. You’ve got to live with that; you’ve got to put the ball in her hands.”In last week’s 52-49 home win against Clemson, Sinclair had another first half to remember. She scored 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting, but cooled off in the second half, scoring just five points in the period.“If anyone can get to 50 and above against us, we’re so limited offensively, the result is going to be an ‘L,’” Miller said. “That’s unfortunately the reality of a team that doesn’t have any kind of offensive talent.”Sinclair has struggled to put together a complete game, but could use some help from the rest of the team. In the first half against Belmont, her teammates hit 2-of-17 (11.8 percent) shots. Including Sinclair, the team finished 18-of-54 (33.3 percent) on the game. Miller seeks outside advice on gameday IU Coach Curt Miller has been charged with the task of resurrecting the IU women’s basketball program, which has had just one 20-win season in the past decade. On Tuesday, Miller sought advice from his peers before the team’s game against Belmont, calling a number of other college coaches. “Gameday, coaches are nervous and don’t know what to do with themselves,” Miller said. “I was on the phone with people from coast to coast today in rebuilding stages, or they now have come out of rebuilding stages, and they talk about the most exhausting thing in rebuilding is every possession feels like it’s the difference in the game.”As Miller has repeatedly alluded to, scoring will come at a premium this year. At Bowling Green, Miller said he could always count on a big run or two to break the game open and establish a cushion. “And here, we don’t have that offensive firepower,” he said. “So every single possession — and this is common around rebuilding programs — every single possession feels do or die. You feel you have to get a stop, and you’re coaching every single possession defensively like it’s the game-winning possession.” “That is exhausting for both coaches and players because we know we can’t let this game get high-scoring. We can’t do it.”Why he recruits shootersOutside of Sinclair and freshman guard Nicole Bell, who have produced 39.7 percent of IU’s total scoring, the Hoosiers lack players who can stretch the floor. In fact, the team’s other players have combined to shoot only 20.4 percent (11-of-54) on 3-point shots in 2012. IU currently averages a Big Ten-worst 58.4 points per game and is ahead of only Wisconsin in field goal percentage at 39.4 percent. “I’ve coached a lot of games, and I’ve always been accused of being biased to recruiting a bunch of shooters,” Miller said. “I think there is 1,812 people that understand why I like shooters now, and I recruit shooters because what we see tonight is what we see every day in practice. We don’t have great offensive players. We are limited at the offensive end.”Quote of the Day: “We’re not a favorite in one of our last 23 games. There is not one game that we have a chance on paper to win. Not one. Not one game the rest of the year will we have a chance to win. That’s why we have to go play the game and overachieve and try to win…So there’s really no pressure on us. We can just go out and play, and if we squeeze a win out here or there the rest of the year, that’s gravy.”—Curt Miller on his team’s status as an underdog the rest of the year. Quick box score vs. Belmont: IU team highsMINUTES…… 40, Aulani Sinclair**POINTS…… 19, Sinclair*REBOUNDS…… 6, Milika Taufa/Jasmine McGheeASSISTS…… 1, Sinclair/Nicole Bell/Simone Deloach STEALS…… 3, Taufa/McGhee* TURNOVERS…… Five tied with 2TEAM FG%…… 33.3% (18-of-54)TEAM FT%…… 75% (12-of-16) TEAM 3Fg%…… 40% (6-of-15) *= game high**= tied for game high
(12/03/12 4:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the post, on the perimeter and in transition, Cleveland State forward Shalonda Winton found a variety of ways to score on her way to a game-high 23 points.Winton’s Vikings (3-4) knocked off the Hoosiers (6-2) Sunday in Assembly Hall, 69-58, snapping IU’s six-game win streak. “It was a really tough matchup for us on how to choose to guard her, and she stepped up and made big shots, none bigger than the late 3-pointer in the game,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. IU was down just three points with 1:35 left in the game when Winton buried a 3-pointer from the right wing with the shot clock winding down that made it 63-57 Vikings.Winton didn’t just score throughout the night. She finished with a game-high nine assists. The Vikings shot 51.6 percent in the first half, including 4-of-9 on threes. “Play defense — that was probably the biggest thing from the first half going into the second half — is they shot a couple of threes that we couldn’t just get out there and contest,” senior guard Jasmine McGhee said. “Coming out in the second half, (Miller) just wanted us to talk more and play more defense.”Down 37-27 at halftime, the Hoosiers got within three points of the Vikings three times in the last five minutes but just couldn’t surmount the hump as CSU hit clutch shot after clutch shot.“It was tough,” senior forward Linda Rubene said. “Every time we got close, they came back and hit a shot, hit a three, so it was really hard to get a lead. We did what we could, but it was just tough because they hit all those shots.”Rubene scored a career-high 13 points — 6-of-11 shooting — by exploiting switches on ball screens, often slipping to the basket for uncontested layups. “Coming into the game, we knew they were gonna switch (on) screens,” Rubene said. “So it was one of the things coach said before the game, ‘work on slips, work inside,’ because their post players were pretty much 5-(foot)-10, their guards were 5-(foot)-5, so we were trying to get the ball in slip or just use their switches.”Forward junior Milika Taufa scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds, but the Hoosiers had a tough time guarding the Vikings’ more athletic, guard-heavy lineup. “(Our guards) didn’t play as well as their guards, bottom line,” Miller said. “Our post players weren’t as dominant as we needed them to be to pull off a win against a team we did not match up very well against.” Senior forward Aulani Sinclair, IU’s leading scorer with 20.3 points per game before Sunday, scored just five points on 1-of-8 shooting — 1-of-5 on 3-pointers — and didn’t convert a shot from the field until hitting a 3-pointer with 3:32 to go, making it 57-54 CSU.On the very next possession, forward Haley Schmitt, seven points, hit a three in Sinclair’s face to extend the lead back to six.“I thought they did a great job on Aulani,” Miller said. “Aulani’s accounted for so much of scoring this year. When she doesn’t score, it puts a lot of pressure on other people.”McGhee lead the Hoosiers with 14 points, 4-of-13 shooting, and 11 rebounds, her second double-double of the year.The 69 points allowed snapped IU’s streak of limiting five consecutive opponents to 50 points or less. To start a new winning streak, it will come down to defense, Miller said. “We said from the beginning of the year, offense is gonna be tough to come by, and that doesn’t change no matter who the opponent is,” he said. “That’s why we work so hard at the defensive end. That’s why every possession is so important for us at the defensive end.“We have to find ways to keep the score low to have any chance of pulling off victories.”
(11/30/12 4:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After playing three games in six days, the IU women's basketball team has a breather before taking on Cleveland State at 2 p.m. Sunday in Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers (6-1) are riding a six-game win streak and have been setting and matching records along the way.The win streak is the team’s longest since it won nine consecutive games in 2008-09, while the 6-1 start is on the way to matching the team’s best start since the 2006-07 season, when the team started 7-1. A win Sunday against the Vikings (2-4) would match that 2006-07 team’s 7-1 start. IU pulled off a 52-49 win against Clemson on Wednesday, finding a way to win despite shooting 30.9 percent from the field, committing 16 turnovers and being outrebounded 53-49. “They don’t pretend to be anyone that they’re not,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “We know we’re still predicted to be 12th out of 12 in the Big Ten, but no one can take this win away from us. No one can take the six-game win streak away from us.”By holding Clemson to 49 points, IU has kept five consecutive opponents to less than 50 points for the first time since the 1973-74 season. In each of their wins, the Hoosiers have kept opponents to 33.3 percent shooting or lower. “I never promised to pretty play this year, and we gotta make some games look ugly,” Miller said. IU will look for another tough defensive effort against Cleveland State, which has had its share of offensive struggles. The Vikings are shooting 39.1 percent from the field and averaging 66.3 points per game. IU is even worse, with 58.4 points per game, but has the Big Ten’s second-best scoring defense (52.3 points per game) so far. Cleveland State is led by forward Shalonda Winton, who paces the team with 23.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. Guard Cori Coleman (11.7 points per game) is the only other player who averages double figures in scoring. Winton posted a team-high 17 points and 12 rebounds in the Viking’s 68-57 win against VCU Wednesday but was supported by three other players in double figures. Coleman chipped in 13 while guard Kiersten Green and forward Haley Schmitt each scored 12 points. A lack of scoring balance had plagued the Vikings prior to the win against VCU, Cleveland State Coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. “Spreading the ball around — you have kids ready to score,” Abiad told csuvikings.com. “That’s been a problem for us — just having one player that does all the scoring. That’s not gonna get us as far as we’d like to go. Seeing a few other players get into the mix, I hope we see more of that.”The Vikings have struggled on the road so far, going 0-4, and have been outscored 314-270 away from home. IU, on the other hand, will be looking to move to 5-0 at home. “This tonight I think really gives us some momentum going into this road trip,” Abiad said after the win against VCU. “We need to learn to win on the road, so I’m looking forward to another opportunity.”
(11/28/12 3:52pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After beating IU-Purdue Fort Wayne on Monday, the IU women’s basketball team faced a short turnaround with one day of preparation for its game against Clemson at 7 p.m. today.The Hoosiers (5-1) look for their sixth straight win and hope to match the 2006-07 team, which started 6-1 through seven games.IU will also look to stay undefeated at home (3-0) as it welcomes the Tigers (0-5) to Assembly Hall for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in the third of a five-game home stand.“It’s awesome,” senior forward Aulani Sinclair said. “I love seeing all of our fans after the game. Just having that home atmosphere — we just have to protect home court. I wouldn’t ask for anywhere else to play besides Assembly Hall.”While IU has rolled through lesser competition in recent games, it now faces a tougher test from a Division I power conference team.“Despite Clemson’s record, these are the athletes,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “These are the recruited, nationally ranked kids in the recruiting services that you play against night in and night out in the Big Ten. Despite their youth, this is going to be the first test against a Big Ten-looking team.”Miller said Clemon’s Achilles heel is its youth. So far, it’s been a pair of freshmen leading the way for the Tigers. Danaejah Grant, a 5-foot-10-inch wing, leads the Tigers in scoring with 14 points per game and 34.7 percent shooting. She is complemented by 6-foot-3-inch Jonquel Jones, who averages a team-high nine rebounds to go along with 7.8 points per game.“For us, it’s a huge challenge because we’re playing against length we haven’t played against,” Miller said. “We’re playing against athleticism. They’re going to be the best penetrating team we’ve played so far. We certainly have our work cut out. “But those freshmen are still freshmen in their first month on the job. They’re starting a lot of young kids.”Clemson struggles to shoot as a team, posting a 32.4 percent mark from the field and 17.2 percent from beyond the arc.Miller figures to stick with the same starting lineup he has used the last four games, which features less size in the post. Miller said 6-foot-3-inch senior forward Linda Rubene and 6-foot junior forward Milika Taufa have worked well together and given him the energy he wants right out of the gate.“Me and Linda, since we’re roommates, we got a lot of connection,” Taufa said. “She knows where I am on the floor, so I know if I pass it in, I know she’s drifting down, so I pass to her. We just work hard.”Against IPFW, Miller went only 10 players deep to counter the Mastodons’ unconventional four-guard system. Post players senior Sasha Chaplin, who played 12 minutes; sophomore Quaneisha McCurty, who played two; and junior Simone Deloach, who played one, all saw limited action against the 3-point-happy Mastodons.But Miller said all three must be ready to go against the Tigers.“It’s always hard for 18- to 22-year-olds to have their roles changed, and how they handle that ultimately will be a story in the Clemson game,” he said. “If they’re still disappointed about IPFW and haven’t put it behind them, then they won’t be ready to contribute when we need them against Clemson. That’s where you hope the team learns that it’s bigger than them.“Some nights coaches don’t call your number, and the next night they do, and you always have to be ready.”