Hoosiers play host to No. 11 Penn State

IU women’s basketball will welcome No. 11 Penn State Thursday at Assembly Hall with a chance to pad its résumé with a win against the premier team in the Big Ten.

A win against the Nittany Lions (18-5, 9-2) could go a long way in securing an NCAA Tournament bid, but doing so will require knocking off a Penn State team that coasted to a 65-52 win against IU (17-6, 4-6) exactly three weeks ago.

“This is why this freshman class came,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “This is why that large senior class probably originally picked Indiana — was the opportunity to go a BCS school and play against the best of the best.”

Penn State comes to Bloomington after defeating Ohio State 74-54 on Feb. 9.

The Nittany Lions are led by senior guard Maggie Lucas, who scored 23 points against Ohio State in the win. Her 9-of-14 shooting performance helped her reach 2,322 career points, making her the fifth-highest scorer in Big Ten history.

Lucas tallied 18 points against the Hoosiers in the teams’ first matchup. Freshman guard Taylor Agler believes it will take a team effort to limit the 2012-13 Big Ten Player of the Year.

“I don’t think one person can shut down Maggie Lucas or even guard her,” Agler said. “It’s the whole team that needs to do it and that was kind of what we did last time.
 Even though one person was technically assigned to her, I think the whole team needs to help out.”

Offensively, the Hoosiers will look to improve upon their 27.6 percent shooting effort from the last time IU played Penn State. More than half of IU’s field goal shots were 3-point field goal attempts, where the Hoosiers shot 9-of-30.

IU scored 40 of its 76 points in the paint against Wisconsin during the Hoosiers’ most recent victory. IU is 6-0 this season when scoring more than 40 points in the paint.

Miller said getting the ball to IU’s forwards and centers will be a point of emphasis against Penn State.

IU’s post players will also need to combat Penn State’s rebounding. The Nittany Lions are the best rebounding team in the Big Ten and average 14.9 offensive rebounds per game — 3.18 more than the conference average.

“I think the statistic at the end of the game that will be a big deal is, ‘Can we keep them off the offensive glass?’” Miller said. “Even when they can’t get it and they are boxed out, their length allows them to tip balls and keep them alive and they scramble and get those 50-50 balls. We are going to need a great night rebounding if we want to get the upset.”

IU enters the game as an underdog against conference-leading Penn State, but Miller said that’s a mentality his team has used before.

With only six games left before the Big Ten Tournament, Miller said the Hoosiers are focused on the next game ahead and upsetting Penn State.

“I think they really have a good underdog mentality going into this game,” Miller said. “I liked our focus. I liked our prep. Where the game will end up, we’ll see after two hours, but I like their mentality.”

Follow reporter Sam Beishuizen on Twitter @Sam_Beishuizen