Hoosiers to get 2nd chance at No. 23 Michigan

For one half, the IU women’s basketball team looked like it could run with an elite conference team.

In its conference opener Jan. 3 at Michigan, IU limited the Wolverines’ three leading scorers to a combined 28 percent shooting performance and was down just seven points at halftime
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After a dominant second-half performance, the Wolverines won 65-48. This time around, the Hoosiers (10-8, 1-4) will look to fix the half-by-half inconsistency that has plagued them all season when they get another crack at No. 23 Michigan (15-3, 4-1) at 7 p.m. today in Assembly Hall.

“Last game against Michigan we played with them in the first half, and then in the first four minutes of the second half, we came out slow,” junior guard Andrea Newbauer said. “Fast starts are extremely important for us.”

The Wolverines are led by a trio of seniors. Guard Kate Thompson leads the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game, followed by center Rachel Sheffer (12.8) and guard Jenny Ryan (11.1).

In the first matchup, Ryan struggled, finishing 3-of-14 from the floor. Thompson was limited to eight points on 3-of-8 shooting and Sheffer was just 3-of-10.

All three, though, shot at least 36 percent from long range. Thompson tops the group with a 46 percent mark, the second-best in conference.

“Regardless of who we try to shut down, we want to shut all three of them down at the arc and make them go two-by-two-by-two,” IU Coach Curt Miller said.

On the offensive side, IU could benefit from a break-out game by Newbauer. The starting point guard is averaging just 1.4 points and 2.5 assists per game while turning it over 2.1 times a contest.

“I think I just have to be more aggressive,” Newbauer said. “I have to make defenders guard me more, maybe look for my shot a little bit more. If I look for my shot, I’ll open up my teammates, and I feel like I haven’t been doing as good of a job as I could be.”

The Wolverines feature a 2-3 zone that Miller likened to Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim’s vaunted 2-3.

If Newbauer can attack the gaps in the zone, though, she may be able to get open looks for her teammates, Miller said. Finding a pair of her sharpshooting teammates could be paramount to beating Michigan’s zone.

Freshman guard Nicole Bell has been a threat from deep off the bench, shooting 30 percent on 3-point shots.

Senior Aulani Sinclair is fifth in the Big Ten in scoring with 18 points per game and 3-point shooting at 41.7 percent. Both are team-highs.

She enters the game in a shooting slump, however. During the last three games, Sinclair is averaging 8.7 points per game while shooting 23 percent from the floor.

“I just think shooters go through stretches,” Miller said. “You can tell even in practice Aulani has battled a stretch here where she’s lost a little confidence.

“She’s shot so well on the year, so we can’t have her lose confidence, and just keep firing away.”

The Hoosiers will try to snap their three-game losing streak in their first rematch of the season. A win would give Curt Miller his first against a ranked opponent as IU’s coach.