Hoosiers drop game to Toldeo, 69-58

For the first time of the year, the IU women’s basketball team has lost consecutive games.

The squad fell at home to the Toledo Rockets on Friday night by a score of 69-58.

The loss dipped IU’s record to a losing one of 2-3 for another first of the year. Toledo improved to a 3-1 record.

In a game that included 50 total turnovers and multiple impressive runs by each team, inconsistent play would be an understatement of how the match could be described. Inconsistency has plagued the Hoosiers frequently so far in the young season, and IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack knows the exact problem.

“Youth. It’s youth,” she said. “It’s youth that allows the inconsistency. Once the youth grow up and really get to know each other and really start coming in the gym and playing with each other…Once they start to know that, then we’ll get a little more consistency in the group that’s out there."

Out of the team's first four regular season games, only one was in Bloomington. Legette-Jack won’t allow that to be an excuse.

“It is what it is,” she said in reference to the schedule. “I think that we were on the road an awful lot my first year here, and we did some fantastic things there, so there’s no excuses on where you play. You could play in the alley, you can play in the park, you can play at Assembly or at the next person’s arena. You’ve got to be prepared to play when the ball goes in the air. No excuses.”

The shining stars for IU were the two captains of the team: senior forward  Georgie Jones and junior forward Aulani Sinclair.

Jones finished with 11 rebounds and 10 points for her third double-double this season and fourth of her career. After five games she is just shy of averaging a double-double with 10.4 points 9.6 rebounds per contest.

Sinclair continued her recent hot streak by notching a game high 23 points and adding three rebounds and two steals. Her spot-on shooting once again aided the way for the Hoosiers. She shot 8-of-10 from the field, 2-for-3 behind the arc and 5-of-6 from the free throw line exactly one week after a perfect shooting night
at Belmont.

Through the first five games Sinclair has  the best shooter for IU. Her percentages of 59.4 from field goals, 77.8 for threes, and 86.7 for free throws are all bests for a team that ranked last in three point and free throw percentage in the Big Ten before the start of the game.

Despite struggling through losses like they had versus Toledo, Sinclair remained calm and patient for future results.

“Everyday we’re continuing to get better, so I don’t look it as any negative,” she said. “It’s just everyday we’re getting better so it’s a positive.”

Legette-Jack was also optimistic for the remainder of the season.

“We’re learning tough lessons right now,” she said. “It’s a young team that really has to grow up very quickly, but I like the talent of this team, and once we start to get rid of these hiccups that we’ve had…we’re going to be good late. We can be good late.”