After a week off, IU plays the second of its two-game road trip Saturday at 2 p.m. against Oakland in Rochester, Mich. It’s the second all-time meeting between the two teams, with IU winning 85-55 last season.
The Hoosiers are coming off an 82-56 win over Milwaukee on Sunday, where sophomore guard Larryn Brooks led IU with 16 points and nine rebounds.
IU Coach Teri Moren said this two-game stretch would be important for her team to get used to playing away from Assembly Hall. IU has played just one away game previously, a win at Boston College.
“It’s always difficult to play on the road,” Moren said after the Milwaukee game, "so any road win you get you’re excited about.”
Four different Hoosiers are averaging double digits in scoring, led by freshman guard Tyra Buss with 15.1 points per game. Buss has scored in double digits in all but one game this season. She also leads the Hoosiers in steals with 3.8 per game.
Moren has been pleased with production off the bench from players like sophomore Karlee McBride and freshman Jess Walter. The Hoosiers have scored 32 bench points in each of the past two games.
Last week it was sophomore guard Alexis Gassion off the bench, who had 15 points and six rebounds. Moren said in games leading up to Big Ten play it’s nice to be able to put her players in different positions and experiment with different lineups. She said having almost too many players to get playing time is a good problem to have.
And having so many scorers means a lot of points. IU leads the Big Ten in scoring with 84.3 points per game. They’ve scored more than 80 in seven of 10 games this season.
Now, Moren wants to see those points coming after defensive stops, something that’s been a focus since the new coach arrived in Bloomington. In a win last weekend, she finally saw some of that coming together.
The Hoosiers opened the second half against Milwaukee on a 20-4 run.
“Anytime that you’re only giving up four points is important,” Moren said. “Defensively, if we could get it going, we felt that offensively we could get some run-outs that led to some layups.”
Today, IU will face its final non-conference opponent of the season before opening conference play against Rutgers on the 28th.
Oakland is led by junior forward Olivia Nash, who averages 15 points and 8.7 rebounds per game and is shooting 47 percent from the field.
The Golden Grizzlies, members of the Horizon League, have won four of their last five games and are undefeated at home this year. Two of their losses came to Michigan State and Ball State.
Oakland is on a two-game win streak, while the IU has won its last four.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.
