IU falls to No. 12 Florida State

The games were two years apart, but ended with nearly the same outcome.  

In 2007, the Hoosiers succumbed to Florida State and lost by seven points in a close matchup. In 2009, IU lost by eight, with a final score of 82-74.  

The Hoosiers were able to go nearly shot-for-shot with the No. 12 Seminoles until the last few minutes of the second half.

IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack attributed the team’s play to their attitude.  

“We don’t have any quit in us,” Legette-Jack said.  

Confidence is not lacking with any of the team, as junior guard and captain Jori Davis said she feels the Hoosiers can play with the best teams, and play well.  

“We’ve come close, now its just we have to keep that focus in the second half and finish the games,” Davis said. “Obviously our confidence is high no matter what. We believe in ourselves no matter what.”

Legette-Jack also said she feels the team has come close, but the players still need to work on pushing the entire game.

“We’re a 36-minute team right now, and we really got to make it to a 40-minute team,” Legette-Jack said. “Once we get to that 40 minutes, we’re going to be a really exciting team to see.”  

The Hoosiers made some serious improvements over their past play, particularly on defense and in rebounding.

The team was out-rebounded by 10 by Florida State, but in the first half the Hoosiers stuck with the strong rebounding team, as they were only out-rebounded by four heading into the break.  

On defense, the Hoosiers stole the ball six times and forced Florida State to make 22 turnovers in the game, but the Hoosiers didn’t use the turnovers to their advantage as they only scored 14 points off turnovers. Florida State on the other hand, scored 25 points off the Hoosiers’ 20 turnovers.

The Hoosiers shot well in the first half at 51.9 percent, but dropped off significantly in the second, shooting only 30 percent. Some of the scoring woes involved a lack of involvement in the game from senior guard Jamie Braun.  

Braun, who had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds in the 2007 outing against Florida State, only had seven points – five of which were from the free-throw line.

Braun struggled from the floor, as she shot 1-7 for the night, and missed all three of the three-point shots she took.  

Florida State’s coach Sue Semrau was surprised at the lack of scoring Braun put up.  

“We expected Jamie Braun to be the one to really come out and shoot the lights out,” Semrau said. “She played extremely uncharacteristic, I think, of her. But, again, they had somebody that stepped up, and we just continued to rotate people onto Davis.”

The Seminoles focused on Davis throughout most of the game, and adjusted their defense around her, said Semrau.

However, Davis still shot extremely well and finished as the Hoosiers’ leading scorer with 23 points. Fifteen of her 23 points were 3-pointers, as Davis shot more than 83 percent from the three-point line.

Three Hoosiers were in double figures against the Seminoles, and sophomore forward Sasha Chaplin earned a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.  

As for the future, Legette-Jack said the team will continue to work harder and that they wont let this loss bring them down.  

“We’re not going to roll over,” Legette-Jack said. “We’re not going to assume we don’t belong.”