Team wins weekend tournament

The women's basketball team cleared off the awards table Saturday as athletic director Michael McNeely passed out clear trophies to IU players, coaches and managers. \nThe Hoosiers also had wiped away the field in claiming the Holiday Inn/Fazoli's Classic at Assembly Hall after trouncing winless Illinois State and holding off Big Sky opponent Northern Arizona. \nMurray State finished third after defeating Illinois State 65-55. Racers guard Brittany Park, Northern Arizona guard Joy Dixon and senior center Jill Chapman and junior guard Jill Hartman were named to the all-tournament team. Hoosier senior point guard Heather Cassady was crowned tournament most valuable player.\nIU 61, Northern Arizona 56\nThe Hoosiers captured the championship in a game where neither team shot better than 36 percent and played tight woman-to-woman defense. Even when IU (4-2) relied on the sharp shooting of Cassady, previously undefeated Northern Arizona (5-1) wouldn't go away.\nIU led by as many as 11 points in the second half at 37-26 after a layup by freshman Jenny DeMuth, who finished with five points and 10 rebounds.\nBut the Lumberjacks kept hammering away at the lead after the nine-minute mark, mainly on the strength of Lacey Tolbert, who led Northern Arizona with 11 points on 5-of-16 shooting.\nTo stay ahead, the Hoosiers pushed the ball to the inside after Chapman reentered with four fouls. Chapman was limited to eight minutes in the second half and 20 minutes overall because of foul trouble.\n"It's very frustrating for me," said Chapman, who scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. "Every game I have to go out and look back on the next game and change what kind of fouls I had. I just have to get more active, stay on the high side. I can never let down and think, 'Oh no, I'm going to foul.'"\nIU went on a 6-2 run after the Lumberjacks tied the game at 54-54 with 2:35 remaining. With the Hoosiers winning 57-56, Chapman hit two free throw attempts and rebounded the ball with 38 seconds left after two missed jumpers by Northern Arizona. Chapman then hit a layup to close the game at 61-56.\nThe second half was a drastic change from the first half, when the Hoosiers shot 30 percent, 25 percent from behind the arc and 58 percent from the free-throw line. The Hoosiers fired 11-of-37 shots and tallied five assists.\n"I felt like we were trying to do everything one-on-one, and I felt we were selfish as far as what we were trying to do," coach Kathi Bennett said. "We just needed to play a heck of a lot better together. I felt like everyone wanted to do it by themselves at that time. We just talked about it at halftime that we needed to run some team offense and have more energy on defense."\nIU shot 46 percent in the second half. Northern Arizona shot 42 percent to finish at 35 percent. The Lumberjacks have defeated Southern Utah, UC Riverside, Cal Poly, Jacksonville State and Murray State.\nIU 101, Illinois State 53\nSix players scored in double figures, led by Hartman with 18 points as IU downed Illinois State, 101-53, in the first round of the Holiday Inn/Fazoli's Classic Friday. The game was a starch turn-around from IU's previous game, where Bennett was unpleased with the team's defensive effort and overall intensity in a 97-72 win at Butler. Instead the Hoosiers came out and displayed their intense hustle defense that Bennett wants to be the trademark of this year's squad.\n"I felt like our intensity and our hustle and our desire to be a good defensive team really showed up tonight. It was fun to see and I think they really had fun playing," Bennett said.\nEvery starter scored in double figures, with the exception of senior forward Tara Jones, who scored nine points and had a strong game. Chapman had a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 10 boards. Cassady scored 15 points, while senior forward Erin McGinnis added 14. DeMuth had another strong game all-around for IU, netting 17 points and eight rebounds in her second start since replacing injured junior Kristen Bodine.\nStill it was the defense's effort, holding the Redbirds to 35 percent shooting, that put a smile on Bennett's face after the game.\n"If we're going to be a successful team, we have to become a very good defensive team and we understand that," Bennett said.\nIn the first half, Illinois State came out in a zone defense that IU broke down rather easily. At the break, the Hoosiers led 45-23.\n"All our exhibition games were zone and Western Kentucky showed us some, so we've seen our share of zones. We just thought the middle was a little soft," Bennett said. "We shot the ball really well. What led to us shooting the ball well is our passing was the best it's been. Our passing led to us shooting the ball better"