IU went into the timeout facing its largest deficit of the day, down 42-22, but when junior forward Jenn Anderson hit a layup to drop the lead to 18, the Hoosiers went on a 13-3 run for the remainder of the third quarter.
Even when sophomore forward Amanda Cahill hit a putback layup to extend the run to 8-0, it seemed like the run would end with no reward, until junior guard Alexis Gassion hit the team’s first 3-point shot of the day to bring IU within nine points and quieting Mackey Arena for one of the few times.
The run would come to an end, though, as Purdue guard Ashley Morrissette came up with two steals and two assists on consecutive IU possessions to start the fourth quarter, eventually leading to Purdue winning 63-53.
“I’m not going to sit up here and say that fighting back from being 20-plus down, pulling within eight and then losing by 10 — it’s not about moral victories for this group,” IU Coach Teri Moren said. “It’s disappointing.”
Twenty-six seconds into the game, Purdue scored on an easy layup and maintained the lead for the remaining 39:34, not allowing IU to come closer than eight points.
Coming off a 27-point loss to conference opponent No. 5 Ohio State on Thursday, Moren said she thought the team started the game flat, not winning the hustle plays that are normally characteristic of the Hoosiers.
The first quarter ended and IU was already down by 10 points, 22-12.
“They were doing things that kind of got us out of our game plan,” Cahill said about Purdue’s first half defense. “That first half can’t happen.”
Purdue had 22 first-half rebounds, while IU had just 17.
The Boilermakers committed three first-half turnovers, whereas the Hoosiers had eight.
Purdue had 16 points in the paint during the first half, and IU had four.
While those are all common themes throughout the 2015-16 season for IU, the statistic Moren pointed out as the most disturbing was field goal percentage.
IU shot 33.3 percent in the first half — 35 percent in the whole game — while Purdue shot 47.4 percent in the first half and 41 percent throughout the entire game.
“We came in here knowing that they are sound on both ends,” Moren said about Purdue, which boosted its conference record to 4-0 with the win Sunday. “We missed some open shots. Cahill missed some really good open shots from the outside, and we’ve seen those go down. They didn’t go down today.”
Moren said the second half was better for the Hoosiers, as they outscored the Boilermakers, 33-28, but it is difficult to overcome a first half like the one they played in their loss Sunday.
Even with Gassion scoring 12 points, Moren said the team needs the supporting cast to step up around Cahill and sophomore guard Tyra Buss.
Outside of Cahill, Buss and Gassion, the top scorer was Anderson with eight points.
Other than Anderson, five players were tied with two points each, including starting sophomore guard Jess Walter.
And nobody outside of Cahill — who corralled 10 rebounds — had more than four.
“We have to have more help from our bench,” Moren said, looking ahead to the team’s matchup with Michigan State on Wednesday. “We have some deficiencies. We’re not as big, we’re not as deep, we’re not as athletic. Our margin of error is very small. We gotta get tougher.”
Purdue’s win gave head coach Sharon Versyp, former IU coach and Moren’s college teammate, the most wins of any Purdue women’s basketball head coach with 207.
