Hoosiers turn back UIndy 50-47

The IU women’s basketball team won Tuesday night in Assembly Hall versus the University of Indianapolis by a score of 50-47 for IU’s second victory in as many exhibition matches.

The team’s first exhibition win was against St. Ambrose when they prevailed 92-39.
The Hoosiers were outrebounded by UIndy 43-42 and committed 19 turnovers. Their shooting was also down this game, as they connected on 20 percent of their three-point attempts, 27.3 percent of free throws and 36.1 percent from the floor overall.

While some might see this as a sloppy game, IU Coach Felisha Legette-Jack said the main problem was not connecting on shots.

“We shot the ball 55 times last game,” she said. “We shot 61 times tonight, and the ball doesn’t always want to go in. Those are the same shots we’ve made.”

Senior forward Georgie Jones lead IU in scoring with 11 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting from the floor. She led the Hoosiers with 8 rebounds and provided several put-backs late in the game to help IU hang on for the victory.

“Everything I do is just for the success of the team,” Jones said. “When I was out, I just begged to be put back in so I could get those critical rebounds. I was telling the other post players just to get in position to rebound, and that was the main thing we should have focused on, and to just be strong when we get the ball to look to score.”

Another key contributor was freshman center Quaneisha McCurty. At 6-foot-6, she was at least five inches taller than anyone on the UIndy roster. She tallied eight points, six rebounds, four blocks and three steals in her first collegiate start. Two of those blocks came late in the second half when UIndy was trying to extend a one-point lead. The defensive stop led to a three from sophomore center Kristiana Stauere to put the Hoosiers back on top for good.

“I was just kind of in the right place at the right time,” McCurty said. “Me and my teammates communicated well on the defensive end. I was just focusing on keeping my hands up and focusing on my timing.”

IU will next face Central Arkansas on the road Friday in its first regular season match.
While Legette-Jack is happy with a win, she said the women must play cleaner if they want to start the regular season with a win.

“We’re going to have to get our rhythm again,” she said. “We played our first game with all that energy and all that time to prepare. We didn’t have rhythm tonight, but we had resiliency at the end.”