Beyond the Score: Belmont edition

IU women’s basketball (6-3) lost to Belmont Tuesday in Assembly Hall, the first time the team has lost consecutive games this season. Below are news and notes from Tuesday’s game that did not make the recap story.

Live by Sinclair, die by Sinclair

Through nine games, senior forward Aulani Sinclair has been IU’s primary scoring option. She leads the team with 18.4 points per game, 24 made threes and 45 percent 3-point shooting.

Recently, though, it has been a tale of two halves for Sinclair.

For the first 20 minutes and 14 seconds Tuesday, Sinclair looked like she had completely forgotten about her dud the previous game (5 points on 1-of-8 shooting) against Cleveland State. She lit up the Bruins with 17 first-half points by shooting 5-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 from the line.

After Sinclair scored the first bucket of the second half, Belmont’s Katie Brooks shut her down. Brooks gave Sinclair almost no space to work with, limiting IU’s leading scorer to 1-of-9 shooting in the second half.

“In the second half they knew I was looking to score so I had to fight for every opportunity that I had, and she was on me the entire time,” Sinclair said.

With no other player averaging double-figure scoring, IU will have to continue to lean on Sinclair for offense even when she is struggling or well-guarded. 

“When you have a limited offensively talented team, Aulani’s bad shots are better than other player’s open shots,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “Percentage-wise she’s going to make more bad shots than our kids are going to make wide-open shots. You’ve got to live with that; you’ve got to put the ball in her hands.”

In last week’s 52-49 home win against Clemson, Sinclair had another first half to remember. She scored 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting, but cooled off in the second half, scoring just five points in the period.

“If anyone can get to 50 and above against us, we’re so limited offensively, the result is going to be an ‘L,’” Miller said. “That’s unfortunately the reality of a team that doesn’t have any kind of offensive talent.”

Sinclair has struggled to put together a complete game, but could use some help from the rest of the team. In the first half against Belmont, her teammates hit 2-of-17 (11.8 percent) shots. Including Sinclair, the team finished 18-of-54 (33.3 percent) on the game.

Miller seeks outside advice on gameday

IU Coach Curt Miller has been charged with the task of resurrecting the IU women’s basketball program, which has had just one 20-win season in the past decade.

On Tuesday, Miller sought advice from his peers before the team’s game against Belmont, calling a number of other college coaches.

“Gameday, coaches are nervous and don’t know what to do with themselves,” Miller said. “I was on the phone with people from coast to coast today in rebuilding stages, or they now have come out of rebuilding stages, and they talk about the most exhausting thing in rebuilding is every possession feels like it’s the difference in the game.”

As Miller has repeatedly alluded to, scoring will come at a premium this year. At Bowling Green, Miller said he could always count on a big run or two to break the game open and establish a cushion.

“And here, we don’t have that offensive firepower,” he said. “So every single possession — and this is common around rebuilding programs — every single possession feels do or die. You feel you have to get a stop, and you’re coaching every single possession defensively like it’s the game-winning possession.”

“That is exhausting for both coaches and players because we know we can’t let this game get high-scoring. We can’t do it.”

Why he recruits shooters

Outside of Sinclair and freshman guard Nicole Bell, who have produced 39.7 percent of IU’s total scoring, the Hoosiers lack players who can stretch the floor. In fact, the team’s other players have combined to shoot only 20.4 percent (11-of-54) on 3-point shots in 2012.

IU currently averages a Big Ten-worst 58.4 points per game and is ahead of only Wisconsin in field goal percentage at 39.4 percent.

“I’ve coached a lot of games, and I’ve always been accused of being biased to recruiting a bunch of shooters,” Miller said. “I think there is 1,812 people that understand why I like shooters now, and I recruit shooters because what we see tonight is what we see every day in practice. We don’t have great offensive players. We are limited at the offensive end.”

Quote of the Day:

“We’re not a favorite in one of our last 23 games. There is not one game that we have a chance on paper to win. Not one. Not one game the rest of the year will we have a chance to win. That’s why we have to go play the game and overachieve and try to win…So there’s really no pressure on us. We can just go out and play, and if we squeeze a win out here or there the rest of the year, that’s gravy.”
—Curt Miller on his team’s status as an underdog the rest of the year.

Quick box score vs. Belmont: IU team highs

MINUTES…… 40, Aulani Sinclair**
POINTS…… 19, Sinclair*
REBOUNDS…… 6, Milika Taufa/Jasmine McGhee
ASSISTS…… 1, Sinclair/Nicole Bell/Simone Deloach
STEALS……  3, Taufa/McGhee*
TURNOVERS…… Five tied with 2
TEAM FG%…… 33.3% (18-of-54)
TEAM FT%…… 75% (12-of-16)
TEAM 3Fg%…… 40% (6-of-15)
*= game high
**= tied for game high