Hoosiers look for veteran leadership at Iowa

Perhaps sensing their collegiate careers are nearing an end, IU’s seniors have picked up their play during the last few games.

The Hoosier women’s basketball team will need similar efforts out of its other veteran players to knock off the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City, Iowa, today.

The Hoosiers will play the Hawkeyes at 8 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, their final road game of the season before coming home for the regular season finale against Minnesota on Sunday.

“As much as I love the Big Ten and want as many teams in the NCAA Tournament as possible, we want to be the spoiler,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “With a win against Iowa, and an Iowa loss, we could knock them out of the NCAA tournament talk, so nothing could make us more proud than being the spoiler.”

Senior guard Jasmine McGhee has played well as of late. After scoring 26 points and hitting the game winner against then-No. 22 Purdue last week, she scored 25 points on 10-of-16 shootingagainst Illinois Saturday.

She shot 63.6 percent (21-of-33) in those games.

“Seniors at this time of the year play with a sense of urgency, and it’s great to see Jasmine and our other seniors playing well down the stretch,” Miller said.

With 10 points against Illinois, senior forward Aulani Sinclair now sits alone in 19th place on IU’s all-time scoring list with 1,100 points.

Meanwhile, senior forward Linda Rubene has given IU a boost in the frontcourt. In her last four games, Rubene has averaged 10.3 points and six rebounds per game on 50 percent shooting.

IU (11-16, 2-12 Big Ten) will likely need a strong effort from all three players against a talented Iowa team.

The Hawkeyes (17-11, 6-8) have struggled recently, though. They lost six of their last seven games, including their last three home games.

Iowa boasts the conference’s fourth-best scoring offense, averaging 68.3 points per game.

The team hits 34.5 percent of its 3-point shots, fifth-best in the conference, and shares the ball at a high rate as well. The Hawkeyes average a Big Ten-high 15.8 assists per game. 

Miller said Iowa runs a “four in, one out” system in which the offense is run through a post player in the paint who kicks it out to good 3-point shooters.

IU’s offensive system will look similar down the road, he said.

“They’re a fun team to watch, and I try to explain to our crowd what we will look like somewhere down the line,” Miller said. “We’ll look like an Iowa team, a Nebraska team I believe, with kids that compete, kids that can make shots, kids that are fundamental and don’t beat themselves, and I would like to believe that we can do that and are headed in that direction.”

Iowa’s offensive style is largely successful because of the play of its dominant post player, Morgan Johnson.

The 6-foot-5-inch senior center leads the Hawkeyes in scoring with 14.8 points per game and rebounding with 7.4 a contest, good for eighth in the Big Ten.

If she gets double-teamed in the post, Johnson can kick it out to four players shooting 35 percent or better from beyond the arc.

Sophomore guard Melissa Dixon leads the group with 40.1 percent shooting from long range.

IU has shown time and time again this season they can hang with good offensive teams, though, and will look to build off its second-half performance against Illinois.

The Hoosiers shot 52 percent (14-of-27) from the floor, outscoring the Illini 32-31 after falling behind 42-28 at the break. Every player who took the floor in the second half scored.

“At the end of the game, it was the first time when we got beat that I looked at them and said, ‘Let’s go play them again right now,’” Miller said. “We felt like we did a lot of good things, and we didn’t back down from them.”