Hoosiers prepare for Penn State

On New Year's Day the IU women's basketball team (12-10, 6-5) snapped Penn State's 26-game home conference winning streak. Thursday night, the Lady Lions will be on the hunt for revenge to restore their pride.\nIU head coach Sharon Versyp expects Penn State to be looking for payback in Assembly Hall. \n"Whenever you beat a team you always know they're gonna be geared up the next time you play them," Versyp said. "When you beat them at home it adds a little extra incentive. We gave them the loss that snapped their streak. I'm sure that's in the back of their minds."\nWhile Penn State looks to avenge the loss, the Hoosiers seek to prove it was not a fluke. Senior guard Cyndi Valentin knows that Thursday's game will be a tough contest -- similar to the first game -- but is confident in her team's ability to duplicate the results.\n"I'd say (revenge) will be a factor," Valentin said. "We know that they're gonna come out and play and give us a battle. But I wouldn't say that we're worried. Instead, we're ready for them."\nIn the first contest, Penn State's youth got the best of them, as the team committed multiple turnovers and struggling to get into an offensive rhythm. But the Lady Lions have turned youth into experience. Leading the Lions' attack is the frontrunner for Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors, Brianne O'Rourke. The 5-foot-6 point guard, who tops the conference in assists, has steadied the offensive attack. The recipient of many of O'Rourke's passes, All-Big Ten candidate Kam Gissendanner, ranks third in the conference in scoring. The duo has made its team competitive in the conference. \n"I think they're gonna play great," Versyp said. "They're just a really complete team now. They were inexperienced in the beginning of the year, but now they've gained some experience. They're not as young as everybody thinks they are." \nAs the Lady Lions hope to demonstrate their improvement, IU will attempt to improve it's postseason chances by moving up in the Big Ten rankings and securing a higher seed in the conference tournament. With five games remaining, the Hoosiers are in sixth place, but trail fifth place Iowa by only half a game and fourth place Michigan State by one game. Versyp knows that her team can move up before the postseason, but is only focused on one game at a time.\n"I think it really depends," she said. "I think the next couple of games this week will start showing where people will be. We need to have an amazing five-game stretch (to move up), but we're just gonna worry about one game at a time and see what happens."\nSenior forward Jenny DeMuth agreed that the Hoosiers need to focus on one game at a time and not allow themselves to look ahead to future games or be distracted by previous performances. DeMuth said that the team needs to move past a disappointing loss in its last game against Ohio State and focus on Penn State. \n"We're ready for them," she said. "We didn't play well against Ohio State, but we need to move on. So I think we're getting back to playing the way we play our style of basketball. We're ready for a good game"