Hoosiers squeak past Iona, advance in WNIT

When asked if the monkey was off her back after her first postseason win at IU, Felisha Legette-Jack smiled. \nTruth be told, she said the pressure has not been removed. In fact, it was never there to begin with.\n“No monkey on our backs, we were the underdog all season,” Legette-Jack said. “There’s nobody that said we were going to be a top-three program in this conference, so we never had the monkey.”\nThe IU women’s basketball team was all smiles along with its head coach following a 74-71 victory over Iona College (21-13) in the second round of the WNIT tournament. The win improved IU’s record to 4-0 during WNIT play at Assembly Hall.\nWith one minute to go, the Hoosiers (19-13) held a 72-69 lead and had possession of the ball. But, IU failed to convert on the offensive end and after an offensive rebound by Iona, Gael senior Martina Weber scored to make the score 72-71. Immediately following the shot, Iona fouled IU junior guard Nikki Smith with 12 seconds to go. Smith sank both free throws to give the Hoosiers a 3-point advantage, 74-71.\nFollowing a timeout, IU sophomore guard Kim Roberson – who took a blow to her left eye only seconds before – stole an errant Iona pass with only seconds to play at half court to secure the Hoosiers’ second round win in the WNIT.\n“I saw that she was trying to hand it off to a guard, but one eye saw orange so I went for it,” said Roberson, who finished with 16 points and three steals.\nThe Hoosiers opened the contest with a struggling first half. IU only shot 32 percent from the field and did not get into any kind of rhythm on the offensive end. Still, 10 Iona turnovers – eight caused by IU steals – helped the Hoosiers get back into the game.\nWith the clock winding down in the first half, Roberson stole the ball at half-court and drove to the basket for a lay-up as time expired to bring the Hoosiers within three points, 34-31.\nIU carried that momentum into the opening minutes of the second half, tying the game at 36-36, only to see Iona go on a 6-0 run shortly after. But by the 12-minute mark, the Hoosiers went on a 14-7 run of their own to take a 50-49 lead. In order to come back, IU forced Iona into six turnovers through the first 10 minutes of the second half, which in turn sparked the Hoosiers offense.\nWith scoring hard to come by in the first half, Smith took over after the break. Scoring only one point in the first half, the junior guard scored 17 points in the second half, allowing the Hoosiers to keep pace with Iona in the opening minutes of the half.\nIn the second half, the Hoosiers used a combination of three point attempts and drives to the lane to keep a steady lead heading into crunch time.\nAs IU began to click on the offensive end – the team shot 48 percent from the field in the second half – Iona kept answering the Hoosiers challenges, most of which came from Iona’s Weber. Weber, the 2006-2007 MAAC player of the year, scored 32 points in the contest to lead all players.\nHaving advanced to the Sweet 16 of the WNIT, the Hoosiers will play Thursday night against South Dakota State.\n“We don’t want to have the year end yet,” Smith said. “This is the best time of the year. It’s March, you play with everything you’ve got because you don’t know if it’s going to be your last game.”