The rollercoaster season continued for Indiana women’s basketball on Sunday.
A competitive first half saw the Hoosiers down only two points to close out the first 20 minutes. But a –7 and score differential in the third quarter was the deciding frame to push the Golden Gophers of Minnesota over the Hoosiers.
The Hoosiers left Minneapolis with a 66-56 loss to the Golden Gophers. One game, Indiana looks like it can compete for championships; the next, it looks like it won’t find a way to make the NCAA Tournament.
Williams Arena was not kind to Indiana and its offense, which put up 56 points, the fifth lowest full game point total for the Hoosiers this year. The two evenly matched squads played similar games Sunday. Both didn’t shoot great from deep, the difference in field goal makes was only two and the turnover battle was very one-sided, favoring Minnesota with 12 to Indiana’s six.
What kept Indiana from leaving “The Barn” with a win was free throws and a 7-point difference in second-chance points.
Indiana had only nine attempts to Minnesota’s 22. But at the end of the day, only the wins and losses matter, and Indiana did not do enough to get the win.
The letdowns after big wins — either ranked wins or simply conference wins against teams with a pulse — are not healthy for this Hoosiers squad, especially with the upcoming gauntlet of games against more than competent Big Ten teams, such as Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Maryland.
These back to Earth style losses don’t just happen during true road games; they have happened at neutral sites and even at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
On Nov. 24, Indiana got a ranked win in the Bahamas against then-No. 18 Baylor University. The next day, Nov. 25 Indiana got steamrolled by then-No. 16 University of North Carolina by 30 points, keeping Indiana from hoisting the Battle 4 Atlantis trophy in Nassau.
On Jan. 12, Indiana went to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to take on a new-look Iowa team. The Hawkeyes, not a team that will contend for a third straight Final Four, had a hostile environment of 14,998 fans. The Hoosiers exiting Carver-Hawkeye Arena with a victory is quite impressive.
Then, on Jan. 16, in front of its home crowd, Indiana lost by 14 points to a depleted Illinois squad that was missing two of its starters. Additionally, to make up for the unranked home loss, Indiana could’ve salvaged it with a top five victory with then-No. 4 USC, but it failed once more as it lost to the Trojans.
Most recently, Indiana defeated Nebraska 76-60 and beat Rutgers 81-60 on Feb. 2 and Feb. 6, respectively, playing two of its most complete games this season. Indiana succeeded in many areas it had struggled with all year, such as 3-point shooting and turnovers.
Then riding a three-game winning streak, Indiana was playing arguably its best basketball all season. Against Nebraska and Rutgers, Indiana did nearly everything well. The Hoosiers were shooting, rebounding, assisting and taking care of the ball all at high rates.
It looked like the Hoosiers would kickstart their most important stretch of the season Sunday. But IU couldn’t even get off the ground.
“You can’t just show up on the nights that we play in the hall with all of our fans there,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “It has to show up on every stinking night. You have to be super special and do special things on the road that sometimes show up in the stat sheet and sometimes don’t.”
Moren also said Indiana is going to keep doing what it’s doing, because the coach believes in her squad.
“Our experience should be able to help us with the inconsistency,” Moren said. “We need our players, because we know it's in them.”
Indiana will be back in action at 7 p.m. Wednesday to take on Michigan at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
