The Hoosiers got off to a 13-point lead to start the first quarter before it was quickly cut down to five.
At that point, the game could have gone either way, but IU senior guard Alexis Gassion scored the first six points of the second quarter and guided her squad the rest of the way.
The Hoosiers defeated North Texas, 94-64, Tuesday at the Super Pit behind an all-around performance from Gassion to snap their three-game road losing streak.
“They locked in and stuck to the game plan,” Assistant Coach Janese Banks said on the IU postgame show. “I thought we had a good week of practice.”
Gassion has said she is trying to become more of a combo guard this season. Tuesday while playing against the Mean Green, she showed she is capable of doing a little bit of everything. Gassion finished the game with 15 points while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out five assists.
Once Gassion got the Hoosiers moving in the right direction to start the second quarter, she used plays that don’t show up in the box score to help her team.
She was at the forefront of a Hoosier defense that held North Texas to just 41 percent shooting.
“Our focus was defense,” Banks said. “We went hard, hard, hard defensively Saturday and Sunday in practice. I thought our girls really locked into the game plan.”
Assistant Coach Rhet Wierzba said after the loss at North Carolina State the Hoosiers needed to start games with more energy and play like that throughout.
Tuesday, it was junior guard Tyra Buss and Gassion who were both sparks for getting the Hoosiers out to a fast 13-0 start.
Turnovers stymied that spark, and by game’s end IU had 28, but as the game went on, the Hoosiers were able to clean things up.
IU missed just 18 of 50 shots, and out-rebounded the Mean Green 44-14.
“Rebounding was another focus in practice,” Banks said. “We told them, ‘if you want to win on the road, you have to rebound.’”
