Hoosiers survive comeback threat from Evansville Thursday night at home

Despite being down a key player Thursday night, the IU women's basketball team was able to hold off the University of Evansville, winning 83-80 in Assembly Hall.\n"Today we beat a good team," IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. "This team (Evansville) is a fantastic team that has a strong chance to win their conference and be an NCAA team. But we're soldiers too. Our kids never quit."\nThe Hoosiers (6-1) had to play the Purple Aces without senior forward Carrie Smith, but senior center Sarah McKay rose to the occasion for IU in her first start since her freshman year, scoring 19 points.\n"I needed to step up for this team," McKay said. "Coach challenged me yesterday in practice, saying I need to take care of business. I told my teammates I would catch the ball if they threw it to me. When you have that trust in each other, great things can happen."\nThe Hoosiers looked to be rolling toward another victory early on, building a 24-6 lead within the first nine minutes of the game while holding the Purple Aces to 2-for-16 shooting from the field. Slowly through the rest of the half, though, Evansville was able to chip away at the IU lead thanks to three-point shooting and Hoosier turnovers. The Purple Aces cut the Hoosiers' lead down to 44-43 by halftime following a Robyn Jennings basket as the buzzer sounded.\n"That was a great lift for her and the team," Evansville coach Tricia Cullop said. "We had a great mood in the halftime locker room simply because we were finally back in the game when we could have been buried at the 10-minute mark."\nThe Hoosiers gave up 16 turnovers in the first 20 minutes of play, and Evansville was able to connect eight times from beyond the three-point line. The Purple Aces once again struck first blood coming out of halftime with another 3-pointer by Courtney Felke -- the fourth of six in the game from her -- to give Evansville its first lead since tip-off. Felke finished the game with 20 points before fouling out with just under three minutes to go.\nThe woes continued for the Hoosiers in the second half as nothing seemed to go their way. IU continued to give the ball away, shots failed to drop and Evansville 3-pointers kept falling. Despite their troubles, the Hoosiers were able to keep even with the Purple Aces throughout the second half, never trailing by more then three points. With 30 seconds to go in the game, the score was tied at 80 and Evansville had position following a rebound off an IU missed shot. Sophomore forward Whitney Thomas was able to strip the ball and drive to the basket where she was fouled going up for the shot. Thomas made one of the two ensuing free throws, giving IU an 81-80 lead.\n"Whitney is just relentless," Legette-Jack said. "She was not going to surrender this game, and our quote for the day was 'the team that wants it the most is going to be the last to surrender.'"\nThe Hoosiers were able to force another Evansville turnover with 15 seconds left, and junior guard Nikki Smith made both free throws to extend the lead to four. Senior guard Leah Enterline then sealed the victory for IU by stealing the ball from Evansville's Rebekah Parker as time expired.\n"The last two minutes we played Indiana basketball," Legette-Jack said. "We found a way to pull out a good win. I'm proud of these kids."\nThe Hoosiers look to pick up the momentum from the win when they travel to South Bend to take on Notre Dame Sunday at 2 p.m. A No. 9-seed from last year's NCAA Tournament, the Fighting Irish are 4-2 this season.