Hoosiers' defensive intensity leads to win

Playing defense might have been a struggle for the women's basketball team going into this season, but Sunday's 54-50 victory over a ranked Ohio State team showed the Hoosier defense has already come a long way.\n"They played with great intensity and their belief in the game plan," coach Kathi Bennett said. "They never stopped playing defense the way we want them to play defense."\nBennett also said OSU is one of the better rebounding teams they've gone up against this year. Bennett's Hoosiers, however, out-rebounded the Buckeyes by five, which Bennett said was very crucial to the game. \nIU's defense in the first half helped them leave the court at halftime with a 23-18 advantage over OSU. Come the second half, it appeared as if the Hoosier defense fans cheered for in the first half had disappeared. OSU went on a 23-8 run.\n"We really had to battle back after a test, and we were down," Bennett said. "We just kept plugging away and stepped up our defense."\nWith nine minutes to go in the game, the Hoosiers were down 10 points, 31-41. This is when the IU defense stepped up to the intensity it was at in the first half.\nCoach Jim Foster of OSU said his team has a tendency to get satisfied when they are ahead.\n"You can never be satisfied before the game is over," Foster said. "Little things are very important in games like this. It was a good defensive game in some respects, and IU's defensive effort was terrific."\nSophomore guard Jenny DeMuth said the Hoosier defense is what helped them win the game. They held OSU to only shoot .378 from the field. The intensity the Hoosiers picked back up late in the second half helped seal the win.\n"We thought that if we could put together a few defensive stops, we would come out with it, and that's what we did," DeMuth said.\nSenior forward Lisa Eckart said the team's defense was so successful thanks to the help of all her teammates on the court. It was a group effort for IU's defense to really do its job. Eckart said she knows if she's going to get beat that her teammates are there for her. \n"I think we have incredible team defense," Eckart said. "I have confidence in my teammates, and I think that's why we can play such hard on one-on-one defense. Our secondary defense is right behind us and right there."\nFreshman guard Cyndi Valentin stepped up for the Hoosiers and impressed Bennett with her ability to guard OSU freshman guard Kim Wilburn. Valentin was able to play her off the dribble like the coaches wanted.\nIf the Hoosier defense continues to improve, upsetting ranked teams might be something fans will see more of. Bennett and the team said their confidence is up after this game and their successful defensive strategy.\n"It was the hustle on the defensive end that got us fired up for the offensive end," Bennett said. "We started getting some defensive stops and made some incredible hustle plays"