IU hopes to win 5th straight game

For the first time since Jan. 22, 2009, the IU women’s basketball team is on a four-game winning streak.

The team will look to make it five-straight wins tonight when the team plays IPFW at 7 p.m. at Assembly Hall.

IU defeated IUPUI 60-49 Friday night at Assembly Hall behind career highs from junior forward Milika Taufa with 13 points and senior forward Linda Rubene with 11 points.

“You can see this program growing,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “You can see us finding a group that likes playing together and a group that’s got some cohesiveness right now, little by little.

“We don’t pretend to be something we’re not. We know we have to overachieve, and we’re not as talented as some of the teams we play. But we’re not going to go down without a fight, and I’m proud of our fight right now.”

Senior forward Aulani Sinclair led all scorers with 20 points on 4-5 shooting from three-point range and also added a team-high eight rebounds. Sinclair has now scored 20 points or more in four of the team’s five games.

IU (4-1) carried a 38-21 halftime lead behind 18 combined points from Taufa and Rubene in what Miller called “our best half of basketball to date” because of the team’s execution and ability to handle full-court pressure while involving the post players. The team also shot 61.5 percent from the field.

“Their (Taufa and Rubene) 18 points at halftime was the difference in this game and gave us a cushion that we didn’t have to play 20 minutes of perfect basketball in the second half to get out of here with a win,” Miller said.

In that half, Taufa made her second and third three-point field goals of her career after entering with just two attempts.

Miller said he likes post players to take outside shots and said they will have the opportunity to do so with the early success of Sinclair, who is averaging just over 20 points per game. “I shot (three pointers) in high school, and now he’s giving us the green light to shoot,” Taufa said.

IUPUI applied full-court pressure for most of the game, which led to Rubene being left open in transition for several quick buckets in the post. She had 10 points on 4-5 shooting going into halftime.

“We just executed,” Rubene said. “We went over it in practice. We knew they were going to trap, they were going to switch. So we had to get (the) ball inside and just finish.”

In that first half, IUPUI (3-2) managed to shoot just 25 percent and went 0-5 from the three-point line.

“They had to make a boatload of twos, and that’s our philosophy, that you got to beat us making a boatload of twos,” Miller said. “I thought our defense was fantastic. (Associate Head) Coach (Chris) Day really had them dialed in.”

The team held IUPUI’s leading-scorer guard DeAirra Goss, who was averaging about 17 points, to 15 and forward Kerah Nelson, another double-digit scorer, to six.

“They’re buying into the scouting reports,” Miller said. “I think they’re enjoying the way we scout and how much we prepare them on opponents actions and plays and personnel tendencies.”

Tonight, the team will face a younger IPFW team. The Mastadons (2-2) have no seniors on their roster, and nine of their players are underclassmen.

This will be the Mastadons first trip to Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers won the only matchup between the two teams 69-68 on Dec. 10, 2006.

Guard Amanda Hyde leads the Mastadons with more than 15 points per game, and she is coming off of a career high 22 points in the Mastadons 51-46 win against Coastal Carolinaon Saturday.

She is joined in double figures by guard Haley Seibert who comes in averaging 11 points per game.

Guard Erin Murphy provides the spark off the bench for IPFW, averaging nine points per game.

Sinclair said she knows it will be important for the team to continue paying attention to the scouting reports to keep the wins coming.

“Knowing the personnel, it just pays off in the end for us,” she said. “We know what they’re doing and what we need to do to stop them. It’s paying off in the end. But we still got to go out there everyday in practice and get better and better.”