The loss comes at the hands of IU Coach Teri Moren’s former team. She coached the Sycamores from 2010-14 and led them to a Missouri Valley Conference championship last season.
Sunday saw an ugly game take place with 39 combined turnovers and both teams shooting 33.8 percent from the field. The result: bitter for Moren, who said the reasons IU lost could simply be found in the stat sheet.
Moren cited the Hoosiers’ 22 turnovers, 14 offensive rebounds allowed and 52.9 team free throw percentage as the reasons IU came up short.
“There’s always lessons to be learned in losses, far more than you gain in wins,” Moren said. “We’ve been winning by a lot of points, and we’ve yet to be in a situation where our backs are against the wall.”
The 22 turnovers is a season-high and something Moren said needs to improve.
“Our guard play was not very good, let’s just call it what it is,” Moren said. “That has to be on us — myself and our staff. We have to make sure we have our guards back in a good place.”
For the first time all year, IU’s defense looked vulnerable inside, as the Sycamore post players were able to battle down low for easy looks. Senior Racheal Mahan and sophomore Rhagen Smith combined for 22 points, almost exclusively earned in the post.
On the other side, one of the bright spots for the Hoosiers was freshman Amanda Cahill. She paired her 13 points with 18 rebounds to earn her third double-double of the season.
“She’s no longer a highlight,” Moren said. “She’s just who she is, and we expect her to do what she does. She’s only going to continue to get better.”
Other than Cahill, no other Hoosier had a standout game.
IU sophomore Larryn Brooks said working the ball inside was part of the gameplan, but Indiana State did a good job defending it.
“They were trying to take away the things that we were trying to do,” Brooks said. “That’s our gameplan all the time, and we just have to figure out different things when that’s not working.”
IU falls to 5-1 on the season with a trip to Boston College looming Wednesday as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
In the meantime, Brooks said the loss isn’t all bad and will be a learning experience for the young team.
“It was a lot more intense and I think it’s really great for us to have one of these games now just to get us ready for the Big Ten, because that’s how it’s going to be every night when we get into conference play,” Brooks said. “I think it was really good for us. We never want to lose, but I think we’ll take a lot of things from it and we’ll learn from it and move on.”
