In back to back road games against two of the Big Ten’s bottom-feeders, IU’s women’s basketball team barely scraped by with a win. Head Coach Teri Moren told her players that they got lucky. In the Hoosiers’ Sunday afternoon matchup with the Ohio State Buckeyes, Indiana’s luck finally ran out.
The Hoosiers led for most of the game but fell apart down the stretch, allowing the Buckeyes to complete the 80-76 upset in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
“It’s losing in ways like we did today. That’s disappointing,” Moren said. “Especially when you lead for most of the game, and you have a 10 point lead in the fourth, and all you have to do is hit a few shots and then get stops, and we didn’t do that.”
Indiana was in control for most of the game, but the defense struggled when it mattered the most, allowing 31 points in the final quarter alone.
“We’ve been not communicating on defense like we need to down the stretch,” IU guard Ali Patberg said. “Tonight, we got beat.”
The Hoosiers weren’t accustomed to getting beat earlier in the season. IU started off the 2019-2020 campaign with an impressive run through their nonconference schedule, including a win over then-No. 5 South Carolina. As of mid-February, South Carolina is ranked No. 1 in the nation, and their only loss remains to be against Indiana.
The Big Ten hasn’t been as friendly to IU, as five of Indiana’s seven losses were to conference opponents. Even some of the wins have been despite shaky Hoosier performances as of late. Indiana let a 25-point lead slip away against a struggling Nebraska squad before retaking the lead with less than a minute left in the game. The Hoosiers also fought through a close game against a sub-.500 Illinois team in what Moren described as “an ugly win.”
IU’s struggles finally came to fruition at home against Ohio State, a team which Indiana hasn’t beaten since 2011.
“You want to be playing your best basketball in late February, early March,” Moren said. “The last three games, I don’t feel like, and our staff doesn’t, and our kids don’t, we don’t feel like we’re playing our best basketball right now.”
While the team as a whole may be struggling, several individual Hoosiers are still filling up the stat sheet. Patberg has been a consistent contributor for Indiana since transferring to Moren’s program in 2018, and Sunday’s loss was no different. Patberg dropped 22 points, putting in 2/3 of her shot attempts while dishing out six assists. Aleksa Gulbe and Jaelynn Penn added 14 points apiece against the Buckeyes, with Penn also bringing down 8 rebounds.
Those performances, along with an understanding of the talent on her team, help make Moren a little more optimistic for her teams’ future as the conference tournament looms around the corner.
“It’s not going down for us right now, but we’ve got to stay encouraged and stay confident that sooner or later, that basket, I’m convinced, is going to find the bucket for our players.”
Despite their recent struggles, the Hoosiers are still sitting in the top five of the conference standings and are a virtual lock to make the NCAA tournament. IU was eliminated in the second round of last year’s tournament to Oregon, but the Hoosiers have potential to improve on that result with a strong run this upcoming March.
