Hoosiers lose to Iowa at Assembly Hall

After staying toe-to-toe with the Iowa Hawkeyes (14-10, 6-5), the Indiana women’s basketball team (5-19, 0-11) again fell short in its conference matchup, losing 83-64 Sunday afternoon in Assembly Hall.

IU, a nearly 32-percent 3-point shooting team during Big Ten games thus far this season, shot only 2-for-14 with junior forward Aulani Sinclair, one of the team’s best 3-point threats, failing to connect from behind the arc.

“Just because you can shoot the ball from behind the arc doesn’t mean you can always do that,” IU Coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “If we hit those shots, we have an opportunity. They hit their shots, and it gave them some momentum, and we didn’t hit ours, and it took away some momentum from us.”

After Iowa’s Melissa Dixon started the game with one of her five 3-pointers, IU started strong, going on an 8-2 run, including four points from junior guard Jasmine McGhee.

Iowa then countered with a run of its own, scoring 12 of the game’s next 14 points to gain a seven-point lead. IU would pull within as close as just one point of the Hawkeyes before going into the locker room facing a four-point deficit, 35-31.

The Hoosiers continued to stay close as they traded baskets with Iowa during the opening minutes of the second period. But with Iowa’s Dixon and Kamille Wahlin shooting well from behind the arc, a combined 8-for-19, the Hawkeyes were able to stretch out the Indiana defense and lengthen their lead.

“Just knowing that 21 (Dixon) hit a couple threes in the first half kind of made us be cognizant of what Coach Jack had been saying in the previous days of practice about staying on the shooter,” junior center Sasha Chaplin said. “We would rather give up a two than a three, so we’d try to get out there as fast as possible and tried to defend the 3-point shot, but because of that, they were able to get inside.”

Chaplin tried to battle her team back, scoring a season-high 20 points — including 12 points in the second half — but said her team continued to struggle with defending Iowa’s shooter.

“At that point, we’re just trying to play basketball to the best of our ability,” Chaplin said. “Yeah, they’re up, but you have to keep playing how you know how to play basketball. But we kept not knowing where their shooters were, not knowing where 2 and 21 were while we were in transition defense, and we were helping inside too much and giving them the outside shot.”

McGhee scored 14 points to go with eight rebounds, and sophomore forward Milika Taufa added eight, along with a team-high nine rebounds.

Sophomore center Simone Deloach saw her first start of the season Sunday, scoring six points — her most since her first appearance of the season against Pittsburgh on Dec. 20.

The Hoosiers will continue to look for their first Big Ten conference win of the season next Sunday, Feb. 12, when they play another home game against Illinois. The game will tip-off at 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on BTN.com.