Hoosiers hope to snap four-game skid

IU Coach Curt Miller said he enjoys the chess game that is basketball.

He said he prides himself on making coaching decisions that put his team in place to outsmart the other team.

Because of that, he does not like to lose to a team the second time around in a season, especially if he won the chess game the first time.

Miller and his IU women’s basketball team will have a chance to sweep the season series against Northwestern today at 7 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

The Hoosiers (10-9, 1-5) will also be looking to snap the four-game losing streak they have been on since their victory against the Wildcats (9-10) Jan. 6.

IU last swept a regular-season series in the 2009-2010 season when it beat Illinois twice in the regular season before falling to the Illini in the Big Ten Tournament.

When IU defeated Northwestern 68-64 Jan. 6 at Assembly Hall, Miller thought he proved a lot of people wrong.

“I don’t think there’s an analyst or prognosticator that thought we could win a game in the Big Ten this year,” Miller said after the game.

Since that game, however, IU has failed to score more than 46 points and has lost all of its games by double digits. The Wildcats have scored above 46 points in all their games since the loss to IU, and came within four points of pulling a road upset and knocking off then-No. 13 Purdue.

They also captured their first Big Ten win of the season Jan. 20 at Illinois with a 62-58 victory.

Miller said the key to victory in the Northwestern game was his team’s ability to rebound. The Hoosiers outrebounded the Wildcats 42-31, including 18-5 on the offensive glass.

IU has not outrebounded an opponent since that game.

The defensive pressure of the Hoosiers also limited Wildcat leading-scorer Kendall Hackney to 18 points. Hackney has gone over 20 points four times this season, and Northwestern is undefeated in those contests.

“Our defense was tremendous and stuck to the gameplan,” Miller said after the win Jan. 6.

Maggie Lyon, who garnered Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors Dec. 10, scored just 10 points on 3-12 shooting from the field in the first matchup. She is Northwestern’s second-highest scorer at over 12 points per game.

IU senior forward Aulani Sinclair poured in 31 points in that game against Northwestern. Sinclair went 7-13 from the field, and made 14 of her 15 free throws.

Since that game, Sinclair hasn’t scored more than 15 points in a game and has been held to single-digit outputs in two games.

In the first matchup, IU played without fifth-year senior center Sasha Chaplin, who was recovering from a concussion. Chaplin has played in all four games since then.

Miller has said his team statistically does not have a chance to win any of its remaining games, but is hoping it can continue to surprise people like it did Jan. 6.

“We’ve worked really hard to put ourselves in a position to be kind of the party crasher,” Miller said following their Jan. 6 victory. “Be the underdog with nothing to lose because there’s not a lot of expectations.”