A second quarter rut lasted the rest of the game for upset-minded Indiana.
If Indiana women’s basketball has an identity under Teri Moren, it’s the Hoosiers’ sheer drive and ability to compete.
A deficit doesn’t matter if there’s minutes or even seconds on the clock. Indiana is going to keep trying to win the game. That effort kept them in Saturday’s contest against No. 1 UCLA but wasn’t quite enough as the Hoosiers fell short 73-62 in Assembly Hall.
The Bruins are the No. 1 team in the country for a few reasons including a win over No. 2 South Carolina. But the biggest (no pun intended) is Lauren Betts.
Standing at 6’7”, Betts towers over just about every other player on the court in a way that isn’t super common in women’s college basketball. Some teams have players with that kind of size, but very very few move the way Betts can.
To borrow an oft-used cliche, Betts isn’t just tall. She has enough moves in her bag, passing IQ and sheer ability to get the ball in the hoop. She won’t solely rely on her size and power, she can and will hit a fadeaway if she’s put in that position.
Indiana, to its credit, threw a lot at her. The Hoosiers sent timely doubles, put multiple different matchups on her and tried to push her off the block. She was just too big. Too strong. Too good.
It’s not like Betts lived at the line either, just one of her 25 points came at the free-throw line. She ended the day shooting 12-16 from the field with three assists and just a single turnover.
The rest of the Bruins roster was a bit of a different story. Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez ended up in double figures, but they were the only two outside of Betts to manage it.
Aside from Betts, Indiana did a remarkable job defending the Bruins. What kept them out of the game was offense.
Betts, of course, also made an impact here. Her sheer size and ability to cover space is enough to deter looks at the rim for all but the fastest ballhandlers in transition, of which Indiana had one: Shay Ciezki.
The key to this game for Indiana was two things: shooting or getting easy looks in transition before Betts can get set on defense. The latter necessitated stops that Betts was unwilling to give up on the other end while the former just didn’t go Indiana’s way.
The Bruins played aggressive perimeter ball-denial defense on the Hoosiers, who had to get crafty to find any openings on the arc. Indiana got 21 shots in the air, but only four fell.
A few more of those go in and we’re probably looking at a different ballgame. They weren’t necessarily the best shots, but sometimes they just don’t go in and Indiana had to overcome that, which proved to be an impossible task.
Indiana was able to dig out of a hole in the first quarter to make it a two point game heading into the second. A 15-5 UCLA run there ultimately spelled doom for the Hoosiers. They were able to keep scoring, but the Bruins were able to maintain distance for the remainder of the contest.
There are no moral victories in the Big Ten, but Indiana and its fanbase should feel good about the way the team looked today and has as of late after a rocky start to the season. Conference play should be interesting throughout.