IU coach Kathi Bennett held up a laminated white sign with huge, black letters spelling, "IOWA." Her team displayed weak intensity after a feisty first half against the Hawkeyes Sunday.\nShe didn't want it to happen again. Not against No. 11 Purdue. Not for the Barn Burner.\nHer Hoosiers heeded Bennett's reminder -- at least after the first five minutes of the second half. The Boilermakers unleashed an 8-0 run to start the half. \nThen point guard Heather Cassady flaunted her senior leadership. After that senior forward Erin McGinnis unveiled her crazy three-point shooting savvy. The Hoosiers displayed passion in waves at Assembly Hall, but couldn't smother Purdue center Mary Jo Noon (18 points) and forward Laura Meadows' tenacity to seize rebounds.\nCassady and McGinnis raked in 21 combined points in the second half, as IU clawed from a deficit as high as 11 points. IU fell to Purdue, 61-53, for the eighth consecutive time. They listened to Bennett, but couldn't seal a win.\n"I believe we need to learn how to win," Bennett said. "In the second half, we started out so dang flat. That killed us. They got an 8-0 run, and that really hurt us. I don't think we kept the ball out of their lane to stop the penetration as well as we had in the first half." \nIt was Cassady who ignited the IU effort in the second half. She caught the ball on the wing, faked a defender and scored her only three to push the score to 33-29 Purdue at 13:03.\nThree minutes later, forward Jamie Gathing received a pass under the basket and laid in a shot two steps ahead of Noon and was fouled. That decreased the lead to 39-36, but Gathing couldn't complete the three-point play.\nThe game continued to seesaw with Purdue unable to sprint away to a double-digit lead, thanks in part to McGinnis, who finished with 17 points and was 3-of-5 behind the arc. \nMcGinnis landed two free throws with 1:10 left, cutting the Purdue lead to 55-53. Earlier, she aroused the ever-stagnant IU offense with a trey two feet beyond the three-point line with 11 minutes remaining. She repeated the feat seven minutes later to cut Purdue's lead to 51-47. \nHer heroics then came to an abrupt halt. With 27 seconds left and IU trailing 57-53, Purdue guard Kelly Komara blocked another three-point attempt by McGinnis.\nPurdue scored the next four points as the Hoosiers were forced to foul. Meadows carried home the most valuable player award with 16 rebounds and 15 points. But the Boilermaker credited IU for never quitting.\n"They played hard, and they never gave up," Meadows said after finishing 6-of-7 from the free-throw line. "They just kept coming at us, and I have a lot of respect for the team. This is a great atmosphere to play basketball."
On the road again\nThe Hoosiers (8-9, 2-4 Big Ten) continue arguably their toughest week of the season with a 1 p.m. Sunday contest against Michigan (11-7, 1-6 Big Ten) at Crisler Arena.\nThe game is IU's only matchup with the Wolverines, who Big Ten coaches voted in the preseason to tie for first in the conference with Purdue. Ranked as high as No. 12, Michigan started the season 10-1, but then slid to 1-6 in the Big Ten.\n"I have seen Indiana play a couple times," Michigan coach Sue Guevara said. "I know they're a better shooting team than maybe what they're showing right now, and I happen to think we are, too. When your offense is struggling, it certainly has to come on the defensive end."\nPreseason all-Big Ten center LeeAnn Bies (15.6 points, 8.8 rebounds) and point guard Alayne Ingram (13.8 points, 4.1 assists) carry the Wolverines, who picked up 20 votes in the AP poll. The Big Ten's best three-point shooter, Ingram, fires 46 percent from the perimeter.\n"We need a road win," Cassady said, whose Hoosiers are 2-5 on the road and 1-2 away from home in the Big Ten. "Our last one was against Michigan State. We're very capable of winning in Michigan and we just have to continue to play hard and practice"
