No double-digit lead on the road is safe, something the IU women’s basketball team was reminded of Sunday when it lost 72-68 against No. 11 University of Kentucky.
“We let one slip away,” IU head coach Teri Moren said. “They went to their zone and that slowed us down just a tad, and then we just became passive. That was frustrating to watch.”
The Hoosiers, now 2-1, led 28-14 in the second quarter and maintained a double-digit lead in the second half. IU was sharing the ball and scoring in a variety of ways, then suddenly couldn’t come up with enough when Kentucky found its rhythm and took the lead in the game’s final minutes.
The biggest thing missing for the Hoosiers in the fourth quarter was balance.
IU seemed unstoppable with its starting five on the floor in the first half, but wasn’t nearly as effective when it turned to its bench. With a 20-game conference slate ahead, Moren knows her team’s effort needs to be more complete to avoid similar losses in the Big Ten.
“We can’t ride those five for the remainder of the season, particularly in Big Ten play,” Moren said. “As much as I wanted us to come out and play sound and solid for 40 tonight, that didn’t happen.”
IU’s starting lineup combined for 65 of the team’s 68 points, and that became apparent late in the game when some of those starters fell into foul trouble. Senior guards Ali Patberg and Jaelynn Penn finished with four fouls each, and sophomore guard Grace Berger fouled out with five.
Guard Chloe Moore-McNeil chipped in 19 quality minutes off the bench and held her own defending All-American Wildcats guard Rhyne Howard, but the freshman couldn’t get as much going offensively and finished with a single point.
“Our bench has to come in and give us something,” Moren said. “They can’t turn the ball over, they’ve got to be facilitators, they’ve got to be able to go out and make plays.”
The Hoosiers have the talent to run the table in the Big Ten this season and win multiple games in the NCAA Tournament, but to do so they will have to be able to close out games down the stretch. Sunday, they were unable to do that on either side of the ball.
“We struggled from the outside," Moren said. "I am very disappointed in us defensively in the second half because that is not who we are.”
