Indiana University
14/14 Purdue
Indiana Drops Close Contest to No. 14/14 Purdue, 61-56, in OT
1/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2006
Box Score | Photo Gallery
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.-- The Indiana women's basketball team fell in a hard fought game to No. 14/14 Purdue, 61-56, in overtime, at Branch McCracken Court at Assembly Hall on Jan. 5. A turnaround jumper by Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton with 17 seconds remaining in overtime gave Purdue all it needed to capture the slim victory over IU, who was led by senior Jenny DeMuth's double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Indiana dropped to 8-5 on the year and 2-1 in Big Ten play, while Purdue improved to 11-2 overall and 3-0 in conference action.
"It was exciting to play against my alma-mater," head coach Sharon Versyp said. "We knew this was going to be a big game for us and in the end, it was free throws that killed us. We are normally one of the best free throw shooting teams in the Big Ten. For us to come out like this tonight was disappointing. We are not discouraged as a team though, this was a really hard fought game on both ends."
Freshman Whitney Thomas and senior Cyndi Valentin finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Valentin's quest to break the NCAA Division I consecutive free throws made in a season (60) continued, as she went 4-of-4 from the line, extending her streak to 56-straight free throws.
The game between the fierce rivals boiled down to the final five minutes in regulation. Tied at 47 apiece, the Hoosiers and Boilers swapped leads three times during that stretch. Senior Angela Hawkins put in a huge bucket with 57.8 remaining to tie the game at 53-53. A foul by Aya Traore with 32.7 seconds brought DeMuth to the free throw line, which gave the Hoosiers the chance to lead. DeMuth missed both of her attempts, putting the Boilers in a position to win the game.
On the next trip down the court, Smith took a hard charge from Sharika Webb, which denied Purdue the chance to score, and pushed the game into overtime.
The game got underway with a very quick and intense tempo, leaving no room for mistakes on either team. Gearlds gave the Boilermakers a lift hitting several big shots down the stretch to put Purdue ahead by eight, 25-18, the largest lead of the game for either team. Indiana came charging back, outscoring the Boilers 8-4, including a layup at the buzzer from junior Annika Boyd to cut the Purdue lead to 29-26 heading into the locker room.
Free-throw shooting was the key to the game, and IU turned in its lowest free-throw percentage of the season with a 12-of-23 effort (52 percent) on the night, while Purdue connected on 14-of 19 of their shots from the charity stripe (74 percent).
The Hoosiers fought hard to put the game in their favor in the second half but didn't do so until the 10:06 mark when Thomas made a move underneath to put IU up 42-41. It was their first lead since the 15:15 mark in the first stanza and it drew the crowd back into the contest.
Indiana returns to the hardwood on Monday, Jan. 9 with a matchup against No. 15/15 Minnesota in Bloomington. Tipoff with the Golden Gophers is set for 7 p.m. and can be heard locally on WHCC-FM 105.1 with Jeremy Gray calling all the action.
