Hoosiers stumble in loss to Michigan

Indiana women’s basketball junior forwards Jasmine McGhee and Aulani Sinclair combined for 29 points Sunday afternoon in the Hoosiers’ contest against Michigan in Ann Arbor.

However, the rest of the team scored only 19 more as IU (5-15, 0-7) fell to the Wolverines (16-4, 5-2) 66-48, marking Indiana’s seventh-straight loss this season in conference play.

For the first few minutes of the game, however, IU stayed neck-and-neck with the Wolverines, taking a 7-6 lead with 17:16 left in the first half. McGhee scored the first five points for the Hoosiers.

But this would be the last time IU would lead for the remainder of the game.
Indiana continued to hang close as junior center Sasha Chaplin rolled in a layup with 12:36 left in the first half. IU was only down 17-13. Michigan then took off, outscoring IU 25-6 in the remainder of the first half, leaving Indiana facing a 42-19 deficit heading into the locker room at halftime.

The second half saw much of the same, as Michigan scored eight of the first 11 points, jumping out to its biggest lead at 50-22.

Sinclair followed with three straight 3-pointers, getting the Hoosiers back within 19 points, but IU couldn’t keep the momentum going, ending only 29.2 percent from the floor as a team for the game.

But IU Coach Felisha Legette-Jack did see some improvement out of her team — even without pulling out the win — so much so that, after the game, she said she’s going to concentrate on more than the loss itself.

“I loved our second half. Our second half was awesome,” Legette-Jack said. “I thought that we played with more fight like we have in practice every single day. I thought that we came out with more character, and I thought that we pushed the ball with more poise and took our open shots, and that’s what I’m going to really concentrate on.”

McGhee led the Hoosiers with 15 points, and Sinclair followed close behind with 14, including shooting 4-of-13 from 3-pointer range. Junior center Sasha Chaplin pulled down 10 boards but only contributed five points, and Legette-Jack said one of the Hoosiers’ keys to improvement must be helping develop Chaplin into a greater scoring threat.

“We just have to develop our kids so that we can have more weapons offensively,” Legette-Jack said. “Sasha needs to take more opportunities on her shots because she’s a 3-point shooter, but she’s such a teammate that she would rather pass the ball off. We need her to shoot more often.”

Indiana will try again to grab its first Big Ten victory at 8 p.m. Thursday when the team plays No. 10/12 Ohio State at Assembly Hall. The game will air on the Big Ten Network.