Roberson scores 22 in IU womens basketball's road loss to Kansas

The IU women’s basketball team fell to Kansas (7-1) 69-61 at historic Allen Fieldhouse on Sunday in the last game before finals week. The loss drops IU to 4-5 and is the team’s fourth loss in the last five games. \nThe game was the Hoosiers’ sixth game away from home since Nov. 17. The team has played in just one home game in that time, an 85-78 loss to then-No. 21 Florida State in the first ever Big Ten/ACC Women’s Basketball Challenge. \nJunior forward Whitney Thomas led the way with 13 points and 12 rebounds, her second consecutive double-double. Sophomore guard Jamie Braun also added eight points and 12 boards in 39 minutes of play in the contest. However, Braun – sixth in the Big Ten in scoring – poured in all of her points in the game’s first 10 minutes, and did not score again. \nOverall, IU shot just 36.8 percent from the floor compared\nto 50 percent for the Jayhawks. \nThe game also marked the return of junior guard/forward Kim Roberson, who missed the last two games on a leave of absence for what were described as personal reasons. Roberson came back in a big way, leading all scorers with 22 points in the contest. \nRoberson shot 3-of-4 from behind the arc, and after the game credited her teammates. \n“My teammates drove and sucked in the defense, and I was the recipient of that,” Roberson said in a Kansas athletics department press release. “I just tried to knock it down for our team.”\nBut Kansas put four different players in double figures and converted 18 IU turnovers into 23 points en route to an eight-point victory. Freshman center Krysten Boogaard led the way for the Jayhawks, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds. \nAt the postgame press conference, IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said her team is learning from everything it does this season, including losing. \n“We are young and we are finding our way,” Legette-Jack said in the release. “I told our kids that they are going to have to learn some lessons and unfortunately sometimes you have to learn those lessons in defeat. We are going to be better later on, and we just have to stay together as a Hoosier family.”\nThe Hoosiers will take the next week off for finals, and return to the hardwood against Bowling Green at Assembly Hall on Dec. 16.. The team will play the Falcons, Cincinnati and West Virginia over the break before kicking off its Big Ten schedule on New Year’s Eve with a road date at Northwestern. IU will return to Assembly Hall to take on rival Purdue Jan. 3 in its first conference home game.