IU Coach Teri Moren is tired of watching her team take two steps forward and three steps back.
In the case of an 8-point loss to Ohio State last week, she was satisfied with the progress the Hoosiers made despite the loss. It was a team IU previously lost to by 54 points. And it was on the road.
The second step was a win over Illinois on Wednesday night.
When the Hoosiers travel to Iowa City, Iowa, to take on the No. 13 Hawkeyes at 6 p.m. Sunday, Moren wants to take the third step.
Progress is in no way the same as win, Moren said, but it’s something to feel good about.
“Are we still moving forward?” she said. “I know I sound like a broken record, but just being able to consistently play for 40 minutes.”
IU (14-10, 4-9) has especially struggled this season away from Assembly Hall, going 0-5 in conference play on the road. A win over the Hawkeyes would be the first at Carver-Hawkeye Arena since Feb. 20, 1994.
Iowa has won its past 16 home games against IU.
This season, the Hawkeyes are undefeated at home, and their only two Big Ten losses have come at Illinois and at No. 5 Maryland.
Moren simply summed up the way the Hoosiers will match up defensively Sunday night.
“We have major mismatches,” Moren said.
It all starts with sophomore guard Ally Disterhoft. Usually, IU's Amanda Cahill would matchup against the opponent’s four, but Moren said Disterhoft poses problems for her freshman forward.
Though she’s 6-foot, Disterhoft has guard-like skills.
“She can put it on the deck,” Moren said. “She can shoot it.”
Because of that, Moren expects sophomore guard Alexis Gassion, who is used to defending around the perimeter, to play a lot of four against the Hawkeyes. The matchup against Disterhoft throws off matchups across the board against one of the best offensive teams the Hoosiers have faced this season.
Four Hawkeyes average in double digits in scoring, led by Disterhoft with 16.3 per game. Melissa Dixon tallies 15.7 points per game and serves as their 3-point specialist. At 47 percent shooting from beyond the arc, Dixon ranks second in the Big Ten and fifth nationally.
Samantha Logic is the NCAA’s active career assists leader, and her 7.3 assists per game lead the conference.
Moren said keeping the Hawkeyes, who score nearly 80 points per game, off balance offensively will take priority.
“It’s just one of those things where we’re going to have to play a little bit of man, a little bit of zone and see if we can have success in one of them,” she said.
Entering the final stretch of the regular season, Moren said playing game by game, rather than thinking about the postseason, is first and foremost.
Just getting their first Big Ten road win is motivation enough, she said.
But the Big Ten Tournament is just weeks away and the possibility of playing even further into the postseason still exists.
“We try to take it game by game,” Cahill said. “But in the back of our mind I think we all know that’s kind of the end goal, and we just want to win as many as we can to get there in the end.”
