In its past three road games, IU women’s basketball has struggled to shoot higher than 40 percent from the field. With streaky three-point shooting and a rash of turnovers, the Hoosier offense simply wasn’t effective.
On Tuesday afternoon at North Texas, IU got back on track and shot a season-high 64 percent from the field en route to a 94-64 win to move to 5-3 on the season.
It was one of the most efficient all-around offensive performances of the season for the Hoosiers, with assists on nearly half of their made shots and 43-percent shooting from deep. However, the way assistant coach Janese Banks saw things, the defense was the key for the win.
“I thought we had a good week of practice. Our focus was defense. We went hard defensively in practice,” Banks said. “I thought our girls just really locked into the gameplan. They knew they needed this win. They knew we had to get going in the right direction.”
The defense came out strongest in the first half and carried the Hoosiers to a 13-0 run to begin the game. The Mean Green’s response was to cut the deficit to five points after one quarter, but another 20-4 IU run to end the half put IU up 49-23 at the break.
It was a game of large runs. North Texas pieced together a 15-5 sequence at the end of the first and a 12-0 run to end the third. However, during the times when both teams were making shots, the Hoosiers simply made more.
Junior guard Tyra Buss led the way yet again for IU with 21 points, senior guard Alexis Gassion added 15, and junior forward Amanda Cahill collected a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards. The nagging turnover problem haunted IU again, though. A sloppy second half led IU to finish the game with 28 giveaways.
“North Texas is a good basketball team, and they play hard,” Banks said. “You knew there were going to be runs somewhere, but a lot of their runs came because we kept giving them the ball.”
Senior guard Kelsey Criner registered four steals and led North Texas in scoring with 17 points. The Mean Green fell to 2-6 on the year with Tuesday’s loss.
IU doesn’t play another true road game until the end of the month when it travels to Penn State for its first Big Ten game.
IU will play its first home game in more than two weeks Thursday when Northern Kentucky visits Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Banks said the return home will be a welcome break from the constant travel of the past few weeks.
“I just cannot wait to be back home in front of our fans, because I know they miss us and we truly miss them,” Banks said. “It has been a tough stretch. It’s been good for us, but there’s nothing like going home.”
