It wasn’t the case when IU (14-12, 4-11) lost 68-52 on Wednesday to Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Hoosiers made six of their first eight shots to jump out to a 15-9 lead. The team shot 14-of-49 from there on out.
“Didn’t have the focus, didn’t have the edge or toughness to execute what we wanted to do,” Moren said.
While the Wolverines seemed incapable of missing, shooting 67 percent at half-time, IU struggled to move the ball and did not convert many open jump shots.
Moren seemed to be trying anything to mix things up. With 14 minutes remaining in the second half, she sent out a lineup of all-wing perimeter players. Sophomores Taylor Agler, Karlee McBride and Lyndsay Leikem took the court with freshmen Jess Walter and Maura Muensterman.
The result: three consecutive turnovers, three missed shots and a 6-0 Michigan run in two minutes to bring the score to 56-35.
Offense was an issue throughout as only sophomore guard Larryn Brooks scored in double digits, putting up 14 points off of 4-of-8 shooting and 4-of-6 from deep. Excluding Brooks, the Hoosiers shot 3-of-16 from 3-point range for 19 percent.
At one point, freshman guard Tyra Buss had a wide open three in the corner with nobody in sight. She missed the shot. On the next possession, she had a nearly identical look and missed again.
Moren said earlier this week that getting the ball to sophomore Jenn Anderson down low early would be crucial in getting Michigan forward Cyesha Goree into early foul trouble to open things up. Anderson ended with four points and Goree had one foul.
Walter, who scored a team-leading 18 points Sunday against Iowa, shot 2-of-7 for seven points.
Of the 37 missed Hoosier shots, IU came down with the rebound on eight.
Moren said she was frustrated with the rebounding performance, losing 41-18 on the boards.
It was never really turnovers that caused issues, as IU only gave the ball away eight times, three of which from the aforementioned all-wing lineup. Shots weren’t falling and the defense was not there to bail the offense out.
“A lot of our mistakes, unfortunately, are the same ones we continue to make,” Moren said.
