IU season ends in first round of Big Ten Tournament

INDIANAPOLIS — The stage was set for an upset.

The 10th-seeded Hoosiers were facing seventh-seeded archrival Purdue.

IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack’s first recruiting class was fighting to keep its season alive.

But this script did not conclude with an ideal ending for the Hoosiers, who fell Thursday to the Boilermakers 66-62 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.

“This is one shot,” senior guard Whitney Lindsay said. “This is March. I mean, I think that was like the biggest motivation for me was the fact that it’s March. And you win or you go home.”

The Hoosiers knew they had to play like there was no tomorrow, but they still succumbed to a flaw that has plagued them all season — finishing the game.

In a game that saw 16 lead changes, eight ties and a lead no larger than eight points, IU’s season was ultimately decided in the closing minutes.

After amassing its largest lead of the game of eight points with 10:06 remaining, the Hoosier offense stalled, and Purdue was able to climb back into the game. IU scored its final field goal of the game at the 5:28 mark of the second half and watched as the Boilermakers went on a 10-2 run to win the game.

Senior guard Jori Davis picked up her fourth foul with 12:27 left in the game and was forced to sub out. She said IU had the opportunity to win the game but failed to take advantage.

“I told everybody, I think I was on the bench at that time, it was the fourth quarter,” she said. “It was the fourth quarter, 10 minutes to go and we were up by eight. And we had them in our hands right there. We just had to continue to push. And it was our last little bit of the quarter where we kind of lost it.”

The leading scorer throughout the year for the Hoosiers, Davis, had to rely on her teammates to step up offensively while she was on the bench. IU was able to hold the Boilermakers without Davis for nearly four minutes before Purdue came to within a point and Legette-Jack was forced to call a timeout.

“I definitely felt the momentum was going in the right direction on our side,” Lindsay said of IU’s late eight-point lead. “And when Jori had to sit for a little bit, my goal — like my job — was I focused mostly on keeping that pressure on Purdue and attacking and keeping the energy and keeping the five of us focused and having Jori’s back.”

Lindsay played all 40 minutes, scoring 12 points and grabbing six rebounds.

However, the Boilermakers never went away. When IU would drain a momentum-changing three-pointer, there was an answer at the other end of the floor.

And in the last 20 seconds of the game, it was junior guard Brittany Rayburn sealing it for Purdue.

When it came time for IU to intentionally foul, the last person the Hoosiers wanted to see on the free-throw line was Rayburn, who leads Purdue in free-throw percentage, shooting 88 percent entering Thursday.

However, she was able to make sets of free-throws at 20 and 12 seconds to put the game out of reach for the Hoosiers.

“We tried to prevent her from getting the ball, and they called the foul,” Legette-Jack said. “It’s unfortunate. She’s a great free-throw shooter and lights out. This is a kid that stayed in her backyard and learned her craft well.”

Rayburn, who led all scorers with 23 points and went 12-for-12 from the foul line, said the final Purdue inbound was designed to get her the ball.

“Coach set up a play where we had a double screen for me to go get the ball, and our screeners did an amazing job,” Rayburn said. “They switched off on the first screen, and so Alex nailed the second person that switched off, and they switched off again, and it was just a matter of getting open. They did an awesome job of getting me open.”

On paper, IU improved in areas in which it has struggled this year.

The Hoosiers outrebounded Purdue 40-30. They showed they can play without Davis, who still led her team with 21 points.

But, ultimately, this was not enough to upset a Purdue team which has now beaten the Hoosiers three times this season.

“Everybody knows that it’s survive and advance or you do go home,” Purdue coach Sharon Versyp said. “And we know playing our archrival Indiana, with them having four seniors, they obviously didn’t want their season to end, and it’s always tough to beat a team three times. But I thought at the very end our defense is what prevailed. We were able to hit some key shots down low by Drey (Mingo) and free throws by Brittany (Rayburn) to obviously clinch the win.”

Legette-Jack said although this game closed a chapter on this year’s seniors, it showed the fight in her team.

“Unfortunately we fell short,” she said. “But the fact that we kept standing back up makes me proud.”