With guard Rachel Theriot out due to injury, No. 21 Nebraska was going to have to rely on post players and experience.
IU was well aware of these facts.
Nebraska post players did their job and experience was on full display as the Huskers adapted to everything IU (14-13, 4-12) did in a 67-64 Nebraska win Saturday in Assembly Hall.
IU Coach Teri Moren tried creating chaos inside for Nebraska forwards Emily Cady and Hailie Sample. IU double-teamed the post players whenever they touched the ball, but that didn’t matter. It only opened things up. They stayed calm and found open teammates.
“That’s experience,” Moren said.
“You are dealing with four seniors out on the floor and two senior post players who have seen ?everything.”
Cady ended with 22 points, 12 rebounds and four assists.
IU tried mixing up the defensive looks to stop the Huskers from scoring their 34 points in the paint, but the veteran lineup handled everything IU tried.
“We didn’t have an answer for it,” Moren said.
While it appears on paper like it was the IU offense that held the Hoosiers back, shooting 37.5 percent from the field, Moren was actually content with the offense.
She was happy that IU only had 11 turnovers and moved the ball well, ?she said.
The looks were good, the shots just didn’t fall.
She used a few of sophomore forward Lynd say Leikem’s shots as examples.
Leikem had open looks that she would hit nine times out of 10, but they just didn’t go in Saturday, Moren said.
“If you look back, it is ?always going to come down to the defensive end. We didn’t get enough stops.”
Communication was not on par with the coaching staff’s standards. Players were not talking on defense and helping each other out as much as they would have liked.
Moren said Nebraska made scoring look easy. At times, some Hoosiers would be in man-to-man while others were in zone.
“And that’s frustrating,” Moren said. “We are in February and we are still having a hard time with communicating. That is one of the things about being a young basketball team.”
Offense is not Nebraska’s strength. The team currently stands fourth to last in the Big Ten in scoring with 66.4 points per game.
The Cornhuskers got to the free-throw line 20 times Saturday, 10 more times than the Hoosiers.
The nine more made free throws could have made up the difference in the three-point loss as Moren consistently stresses that the team work on getting to the line more often.
Moren said she’s concerned with progress, as she doesn’t want the team taking steps forward only to take more backward. Defense is an area she wants to improve in, especially with the lack of post depth.
The game didn’t have a high score, but IU’s offensive struggles were just shooting related, not something that can be directly controlled. In Moren’s eyes, it’s the defense that cost IU this game.
“It’s not because we didn’t score enough points,” Moren said. “It’s because we gave up too many.”
