DeMuth breaks 1,000

In a stellar 23 point, 12 rebound performance, IU junior Jenny DeMuth became the 18th IU player to reach the 1,000 point plateau and only the eighth Hoosier to do so in her junior season. DeMuth led the Hoosiers to a 65-52 win over Michigan. IU also managed to snap an seven game losing streak and improve their record to 11-14 and 4-10 in conference action.\nDeMuth's record breaking night placed her at No. 16 overall in IU's career scoring list with 1,015 total points, just two points behind Dani Thrush who stands at No. 15. Despite the feat, DeMuth downplayed the 1,000 point plateau. \n"I didn't even know about it until a few days ago when someone told me about it," DeMuth said. "But it feels good to get a thousand points. But I just think it's a team game."\nDeMuth wasn't the only one celebrating as the Hoosiers captured their first win since Jan. 22. Early in the game, the Hoosiers were looking at a 17-7 deficit before fighting back with a 29-7 run to place the score at 36-24. The Wolverines put their own run together to cut IU's lead down to four points with 10:21 left in the game, but IU never let Michigan back into the game. \n"I knew we could pull it through and in the last eight games, I don't know what happened," DeMuth said. "But this game, even when it wasn't going well I think we still believed and we knew we were going to get the win." \nIU will try to continue the new-found streak when they go against the Wisconsin Badgers Sunday. DeMuth and sophomore Cyndi Valentin are IU's main offensive weapons, averaging a combined 33.3 points per game. The duo make up for just over 50 percent of the Hoosiers' total offense. \nWhile DeMuth and Valentin have paced IU's offense all season long, this year's crop of freshmen have put up numbers of their own for the Hoosiers. The first year players account for nearly a third of IU's offense and rebounding. \nAs for Wisconsin, sophomore Ashley Josephson and junior Stephanie Rich lead the Badgers offensively, averaging 12.8 and 10.8 points respectively. Josephson and Rich are also deadly from behind the arc ranking at No. 4 and No. 12 respectively in the Big Ten in three-point efficiency. \nWhile Josephson and Rich provide the bulk of the scoring while 6-foot-7-inch senior Lello Gebisa and 6-foot-5-inch Emily Ashbaugh provide the muscle underneath. Together the duo average 19.0 ppg and add 11.9 rebounds per game. Gebisa also ranks among the top five in the Big Ten in blocks, swatting away 1.95 shots per game. \nWith weapons both inside and outside of the three point arc, IU coach Kathi Bennett said Wisconsin's balanced attack is can be very dangerous.\n"I think (Wisconsin's) offense is a high-low offense and they really try to get the ball inside to Lello Gebisa and Emily Ashbaugh," Bennett said. "I think Stephanie Rich is the main threat because she organizes them and I feel like we have to get great pressure on her because she's the one who's the key to their entire offense. Those are the three players we have to watch out for."\nWhile the six-foot-seven freshman Sarah Mckay and six-foot-three sophomore Angela Hawkins are not short by any stretch of the imagination, Bennett said they have a battle ahead of them when dealing with the Gebisa/-Ashbaugh duo.\n"(McKay and Hawkins) have to play team defense and do great double-teams," Bennett said. "Not one of them can guard her one-on-one they've got to get great position they can't give her garbage baskets off of offensive rebounds and we can't put them on the foul line I feel like they have to do that in tandem."\nSophomore April Williams said the Hoosiers will concentrate on defense when they meet with the Badgers on Sunday. \n"We have to come at them at the beginning of the game," Williams said. "We need to work hard on defense and get back in transition."\nWith only two more games left in the regular season, McKay said the team realizes that it is now or never, and will have to turn it up a notch in order to make it into the post season. \n"We know we have to turn it up," McKay said. "We know we have to win these next few games in order to break the .500 mark and for any hope of post season play. We're ready to go and we know we need to put it all on the floor." \n-- Contact senior writer Dan Patrick at djpatric@indiana.edu.