Legette-Jack: Team lacked desire to represent Indiana

The IU women’s team has had other losses this year — 15, to be exact.

But this one was different.

“This may be the first game that we played where I felt like our kids didn’t have the desire to represent Indiana, and that was very disappointing,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said.

Her team fell Sunday to Wisconsin 75-49 at Assembly Hall, giving the Hoosiers their ninth-straight loss.

The 26-point margin is the biggest point difference of the year — and the outcome of this game was apparent early.

The Hoosiers’ (8-15, 2-9) last lead of the game came with 9:54 left in the first half with the score 17-16.

However, the Badgers (13-10, 8-3) closed out the half shooting 8-of-12 from three-point range to give them a 14-point lead heading into halftime. This consistent outside shooting killed momentum for the Hoosiers, as they saw the energy from big plays squashed by a Badger 3-pointer on the other end of the floor.

Wisconsin coach Lisa Stone said a balanced attack was the key to her team’s lopsided victory.

“You make eight threes in the first half, you want to make sure that you go inside in the second half to balance it out, and our team did a good job of that,” she said.

In the second half, IU limited the Badgers to 1-for-7 from beyond the arc but allowed Wisconsin to shoot 45.8 percent.

IU then watched as the Wisconsin lead grew to as much as 28 with 8:45 left.

“It was seesaw midway through the first half, and then we caught fire,” Stone said.
“But being up at half, there’s still another half to play and you want to make sure you don’t let them get confidence to get momentum.”

Wisconsin’s numbers prior to the game came as advertised.

Senior guard Alyssa Karel, Wisconsin’s top scorer, led all players with 21 points.

“Karel is a special kid,” coach Legette-Jack said. “She’s playing like a senior and getting a pick set by a senior who knows her well and the person who’s passing the ball to them is a senior.”

IU senior guard Jori Davis led the Hoosiers with 14 points while junior guard Alisha Goodwin added 12 off the bench.

Karel said while IU continued to fight to get back into the game, Wisconsin remained poised to finish strong.

“I think that’s actually been a struggle for us this entire Big Ten season — getting a lead and getting teams back in it,” she said. “So we just made ourselves conscious of that.”

Legette-Jack said she will remain steadfast in her approach to the game and emphasize to her team the importance of fundamentals.

“It’s not like they’re bigger, stronger, faster. We’re missing free throws, we’re missing
layups, we’re missing putbacks,” she said. “The system works. The players got to make the system work now and have to be held accountable, and they understand that.”