Hoosier offense comes alive in win

Facing another team from Illinois, there would be no shooting struggles from the field this time for the IU women’s basketball team.

After suffering one of its poorest shooting performances of the season last Thursday against Northwestern, IU had one of its best days from the field in a 77-58 win yesterday at Illinois.

“I got a very excited locker room tonight that stuck to the game plan and, more importantly, believed in each other and believed that they could make shots and a lot of shots they missed the other night in a close loss to Northwestern,” IU Coach Curt Miller said.

The Hoosiers shot 47.5 percent from the field yesterday afternoon after shooting 30 percent Thursday against Northwestern.

The shooting percentage is IU’s second-best in Big Ten play since shooting 50 percent from the field at Iowa on Jan. 25.

Individually, freshman guard Alexis Gassion had a career night. The Fairborn, Ohio, native shot 4-of-5 from 3-point range and 8-of-10 overall from the field en route to a career-high 22 points.

The Hoosiers made five of their first seven field goals, which led to an early 14-9 lead in the first half. Gassion was responsible for half of those points.

“Our start was talked about,” Miller said. “We needed it for our confidence because our team had hit rock bottom with the way we shot. I mean, we were 3-for-15 from the foul line in the second half against Northwestern and lost in the final minute.”

A 3-pointer at the eight minutes and 12 seconds mark in the second half by the freshman guard sparked an 11-5 IU run in which the Hoosiers connected on 3-of-4 3-point attempts.

The hot shooting from the perimeter led to the largest lead of the game for IU, 75-49 with four minutes and 59 seconds remaining in the game.

Gassion also grabbed five rebounds, part of 45 total rebounds. The Hoosiers dismantled the Illini on the boards, winning the rebounding battle 45-26.

The 45 team rebounds marked the third-highest rebounding performance for IU in Big Ten play this season. It’s only the sixth time this season the Hoosiers have grabbed 45 or more rebounds in a game.

Freshman forward Lyndsey Leikem had the best individual rebounding effort for IU, grabbing 10 rebounds and 10 points to earn a double-double.

Leikem’s offensive rebound with 11 minutes and one second remaining in the first half led to a 3-pointer by Gassion and gave the Hoosiers a 34-15 lead.

That lead was built on a 20-6 IU run.  Eleven of those 20 points came from second-chance points on four offensive rebounds.

The Hoosiers finished with 10 offensive rebounds.

Miller said he was proud of his team’s performance.

“We’ve shot the ball well, we’ve scored the ball well,” Miller said. “We were over 80 points 10 times this year, and so we’ve had some good production scoring the basketball.”

Follow reporter Stuart Jackson on Twitter @Stuart_Jackson1.