Hoosiers defeat Valpo 85-51, move to 3-0

Coming off an upset win against then-No. 15 Kentucky, the IU women's basketball team extended its record to 3-0 with an 85-51 win against Valparaiso University Wednesday.\nJunior Leah Enterline led the Hoosiers with 17 points, though the team did not rely on just one shooter throughout the game. Five of IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack's Hoosiers scored in double-digits. Sophomore Whitney Thomas (16 points), freshman Jamie Braun (12 points), senior Carrie Smith (10 points) and junior Nikki Smith (16 points) all chipped in offensively for the Hoosiers.\n"That's just good stuff. That's called team basketball," Legette-Jack said. "That's what we are, we're a team first."\nNikki Smith, who played on a Hoosier team that relied mostly on graduate Cyndi Valentin last season, said having five players score in double-digits is important to the success of the team.\n"It's just fun for us to play because if one person is having an off night, there are three or four other people there to pick them up," Nikki Smith said.\nThe Crusaders gave the Hoosiers a run for their money early on, despite turning the ball over nine times in the process in a high-scoring first half. After scoring in the first eight seconds of the game, Valparaiso went on a 7-0 run to retake the momentum of the game.\nThe Hoosiers were able to tie the game shortly thereafter, and the teams traded baskets throughout much of the remainder of the first half. Carrie Smith and Braun led the way for IU in the first half, combining for 22 of the Hoosiers' 43 first-half points.\n"Carrie's having fun out there," Legette-Jack said. "Though she's not a captain, she's certainly one of the leaders on this team. She gets out there, and I can get on her so hard and she'll look at me and smile saying 'You're right, you're right.'" \nBoth teams shot the ball well throughout the first half at 50 percent each.\nThe second half, like the Kentucky game, told a completely different story. While the first half was all scoring, the teams struggled in making their shots in the second half. Unfortunately for the Crusaders, they were on the losing end of the field goal percentage battle.\nUsing a combination of pressure defense and a transition offense, the Hoosiers had little trouble extending their lead at the start of the period.\nThe Crusaders shot 6.7 percent in the second half, scoring six points through the first 12 minutes and just 11 the entire period. Valparaiso made only two field goals in the final 20 minutes.\nIU, on the other hand, shot a steady 47.8 percent in the second half and quickly opened up its lead, forcing Valparaiso to take bad shots and commit unnecessary turnovers.\n"They forced us into a lot of turnovers," Valparaiso coach Keith Freeman said. "Certainly in the second half they did a great job of getting us to lose control of the game. You can't control the tempo of the game if you're turning it over 22 times."\nWhile Freeman took note of his team's mistakes, Legette-Jack was impressed with the way the Hoosiers won, despite a poor start.\n"It's something real special; to play that bad and win this decisively over a team like Valparaiso that has a very high confidence," Legette-Jack said. "That's a testament of the character of this team. Any given day, someone can step up, and right now, everybody is"