Tournament chances fading after Iowa loss

IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack placed a premium on this final stretch of games before the Big Ten Tournament.

Five straight losses weren’t exactly what she had in mind.

The Hoosiers (13-15, 6-11) couldn’t complete a rally from a deficit as large as 16 points, and Iowa (16-12, 9-8) completed a season sweep of IU with a 76-64 win Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The loss was the Hoosiers’ fifth straight.

“We’ve got to come ready to play,” Legette-Jack said. “I’m not certain why we don’t have a sense of urgency. We certainly did not have that sense of urgency.”

While both teams had four players score in double digits, Iowa shot 45 percent from the field compared to the Hoosiers’ 30.3 percent.

“Hats off to Iowa, who’s playing emotional basketball, committed basketball, together basketball,” Legette-Jack said.

Hawkeyes center Morgan Johnson led all players in scoring with 18 points, and guard Jaime Printy added 17. Forward Kelly Krei posted a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

For IU, senior guard Jamie Braun led the way with 14 points and 5 assists. Junior guards Jori Davis and Whitney Lindsay each scored 12 points.

Freshman forward Sasha Chaplin added 11 points and led the charge off the boards with 7 rebounds.

Sophomore forward Danilsa Andujar played just three minutes because of an ankle injury she suffered in practice Tuesday.

Despite the high final score, the game began slowly.

Krei hit a 3-point shot to score the opening points, but IU responded with a 10-2 run in the first 5:15 of play.

The Hawkeyes tied the game at 12-12 with 11:50 remaining in the first half. Iowa scored 15 unanswered points, capped with a Printy 3-pointer, to assume a 25-14 lead with 5:59 left in the half.

“We have to get better,” Legette-Jack said. “It’s not about who scores what. It’s when we score.”

The Hoosiers trailed by as many as 13 before the buzzer, but Braun nailed a late 3-pointer while Davis and Chaplin hit free throws to keep IU in striking distance. The Hawkeyes led 32-26 at halftime.

Iowa reemerged from the locker room with the same swagger it gained with the lead in the first half.

Guard Kamille Wahlin, who missed the Feb. 11 meeting with the Hoosiers in Bloomington, hit an early 3-pointer to spark an 11-3 run in the first four minutes of the second half.

The Hawkeyes went ahead 43-29. Shortly afterward, however, IU slowly began chipping at the lead.

Down 52-41 with little less than 10 minutes to play, Braun went 4-of-4 in two trips to the foul line, and Lindsay scored a layup on a fast break to cut the lead to three with 8:17 remaining.

Krei hit a 3-pointer for Iowa, but IU junior guard Andrea McGuirt responded with a 3-pointer of her own.

However, the Hoosiers missed too many key shots late in the fourth quarter and allowed Iowa to pull away again.

Braun and Lindsay provided last-ditch efforts with 3-pointers, and Lindsay added a layup to put IU back within six with 1:06 to play before the Hawkeyes forced IU into fouling and sealed the victory.

Heading into the final game before the Big Ten Tournament on Sunday, Legette-Jack knows what it will take for IU to see the postseason at this point.

“We have a lot of work to do,” she said. “There’s still fight in us, but I tell you, we have to make a commitment to start the game off at the beginning.”