Road to wins depends on second half for Hoosiers

Even with an 0-9 conference record, the IU women’s basketball team has had its chances.

In both games against Northwestern, the Hoosiers were within as little as three points late in the second half before falling first by eight and then by seven points.

Against Ohio State at Assembly Hall, one of the top teams in the Big Ten and the country, IU was up by one point going into halftime after leading in the first half by as many as eight points. The Buckeyes would go on to score the first 13 points of the second half and win by 18.

On Thursday, IU Coach Felisha Legette-Jack will take her squad to University Park, Pa., to take on Penn State in hopes of both breaking the team’s conference losing streak and building some confidence by winning games down the stretch — a feat they haven’t been able to accomplish in their recent several tries.

“I think that we did a really good job at taking shots available to us, but I thought we could have attacked the basket more late in the Northwestern game,” Legette-Jack said. “All things are different, but under pressure (other teams) have come on and we backed off instead of attacking. They’re going to either win the game or take it away from us, but we’ve watched some film and learned that lesson.”

In four of the Hoosiers’ last five games, dating back to their first game against Northwestern on Jan. 8, Indiana has been outscored more in the second half than the first half. Legette-Jack said a lack of focus handling the ball has hurt the Hoosiers down the stretch and prevented some late-game comebacks.

“We’ve gone from 21 (turnovers) to 19 to 16 to 15, and if we can get that number to our goal, which is 11, I think we have a better chance if we can protect that ball a little bit more,” Legette-Jack said. “If we can keep the ball in our possession longer, we’ll have more opportunities to have success.”

Three of IU’s last four games against Penn State have come down to a single-digit deficit, but if her team is close in the last few minutes Thursday, Legette-Jack said she already knows what to tell her players to keep them focused on the task at hand.

“You’ve got to trust your gut and take a deep breath and push forward and try to make something happen,” Legette-Jack said. “Every game is a different scenario — we’re going to come up with different plays for different situations — but at the end of the day, it’s just about believing in what you’ve worked on and that your work ethic is just as good as the next person. Take a deep breath and attack.”

The game will tipoff at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Bryce Jordan Center and will be broadcast on BTN.com.