Teri Moren will have to wait yet again to reach her 100th career win as the IU women’s basketball head coach.
Since picking up win her 99th win at Nebraska on Feb. 3, Moren’s squad has lost three consecutive games for the first time this season, the most recent coming Thursday night at Michigan by a final score of 67-58.
The Hoosiers got off to their usual slow start, allowing the Wolverines to get out to an early 18-8 lead. While IU, now 17-9 overall and 6-8 in the Big Ten, is still playing without its leading scorer junior guard Ali Patberg, the poor starts have been a frequent trend all season.
The team was able to turn things around late in the first period when it went on an 8-0 run, cutting the deficit to two at the end of the first frame.
Once IU had its offense rolling late in the first, the momentum carried into the second where the defense stepped up as well.
Behind some sloppy play from Michigan, IU was able to outscore its opponent 15-8 in the second quarter to take a five-point lead at the half.
And the team came out hot in the third to stretch the lead to nine before the Wolverines quickly fought back.
After IU had the nine-point lead with 8:53 left in the third, the teams began to go back and forth for most of the remainder of the game. Neither team led by more than four points in a stretch longer than 17 minutes in the third and fourth quarters.
"Our lack of discipline today really showed up, I thought, in the third," Moren said.
IU was led in scoring by sophomore guards Bendu Yeaney and Jaelynn Penn who had 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Yeaney shot 6-for-12 in the game and was effective while driving to the rack. Penn also got shots to fall inside but struggled from beyond the arc shooting 1-for-7.
Freshman guard Grace Berger started her second consecutive game since Patberg’s injury and had just five points on 2-for-6 shooting.
Despite not having Patberg, IU’s offense played one of its cleanest games this season. The teams nine turnovers against the Wolverines exceeded Moren's goal of 15 or less, but seven of those came in the second half.
IU's plus-11 turnover margin was the best in a game since Nov. 28 when it had the same number against Wake Forest University.
"I was proud of the way we took care of the ball," Moren said. "We forced them to turn it over 20 times. We really tried to amp our defense up."
IU’s recent struggles have not moved the team around much in ESPN’s NCAA Tournament projections. Sitting at 11th place in the conference immediately following Thursday’s loss, IU is still in a cluster of six teams that have six or seven conference wins.
"Nobody feels sorry for the Hoosiers, and nobody cares," Moren said. "We've got to move forward."
IU’s next game will be at 7 p.m. Monday against No. 23 Rutgers, a team that defeated IU 69-64 earlier this season.
