After notching first Big Ten victory, Hoosiers go against Purdue to end season

After an 82-60 drubbing at home to its in-state rival, then-No. 13 Purdue, more than a month ago, the IU women’s basketball team was 0-6 in the Big Ten and struggled to compete in a conference with four teams ranked in the top 25.

But now, after their first win in almost two months on Thursday night, the Hoosiers hope to extend their win streak against Purdue.

The Boilermakers have dropped nine spots in the AP poll and lost three of their last four games when they face off in Mackey Arena on Sunday at noon.

The tough news, though, is that the Hoosiers must fight for a win against Purdue without their leading scorer after the team’s second season-ending injury.

The team announced Tuesday that its leading scorer, junior Jasmine McGhee, will sit out the remainder of the regular season, as well as the Big Ten Tournament, with a stress fracture in her foot.

IU will now have to rely on the rest of the team, particularly junior forward Aulani Sinclair, to make up for McGhee’s scoring load, an average of 12.6 points per game.

IU Coach Felisha Legette-Jack said the key to keep Sinclair, who has averaged 19 points the past four games, a powerful scoring threat is a strong inside presence from the Hoosiers’ forwards and centers.

“If our post players get a little bit better in the next couple games, you’re going to see Sinclair score about 30 points,” Legette-Jack said. “She can flat-out score, and we’ve never denied that, but when you’ve got two or three people on you, it’s very difficult to score.

“But if you’ve got a player one-on-one, like Sinclair, she can easily go for 30, and that’s our hope. That someone can show up under the post so they can’t double up on Aulani.”

Legette-Jack added that all season long, she’s liked the way her team has performed in practice, yet when it has come to game time, the Hoosiers have faltered, until Thursday night.

In several games, Indiana has stayed close or even led at halftime, only to fall victim to a long scoring drought or allow one conference opponent or another to go on a big run.

Junior center Sasha Chaplin said what she thought was her team’s biggest flaw: not being able to play a full game.

“I think to get a win, we need overall effort from everyone on the team: the guards, post players, the bench, the whole coaching staff, just the team as a whole to give us that overall effort and just bring that energy for us to have that momentum going into our last game,” Chaplin said.

“We just have to go out there and play a consistent 40 minutes of basketball.”