Indiana University
Northwestern
IU Triumphs Over Northwestern In Home Finale, 60-46
2/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2006
Box Score | Photo Gallery
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.-- In a game that bid farewell to seniors Brigett Branson, Jenny DeMuth, Angela Hawkins, Kali Kullberg and Cyndi Valentin, the Indiana women's basketball team defeated Northwestern, 60-46, on Feb. 12. In front of its largest crowd of the season, 3,047, and on National Girls and Women in Sports Day, the Hoosiers made it a season sweep against the Wildcats in their home finale.
With the win Indiana improved to 14-10 on the year and 8-5 in Big Ten, while Northwestern slipped to 6-18 overall and 2-11 in conference action.
"When you play teams a second time they pretty much have figured you out," Indiana head coach Sharon Versyp said. "Senior day is always hard, it is always a tough game emotionally, I am glad we got through it. We played good defense, but we have to start scoring more points. It is a concern and we will make some adjustments this week. We have three tough road games, but with our bye week, we can get some rest, take some time off, get re-energized, and refocused for our next games."
Valentin finished with a game-high 22 points, while DeMuth and Hawkins pitched in with 14 and 11, respectively. Hawkins also corralled a game-high nine rebounds.
The Wildcats came out hungry and jumped to an early 12-2 lead by the first media timeout, shooting 60 percent from the floor. Northwestern continued to shoot well, but Indiana stepped up its game and went on a 17-7 run of its own. Valentin scored nine of those points down the stretch to tie the game at 19 with 8:02 left in the first half.
DeMuth's free throw at the 7:05 mark gave IU its first lead of the game, 20-19, but the two teams swapped leads the rest of the half. Finally, Valentin gave the Hoosiers a huge lift by netting three long balls in a row to allow Indiana to close out the half with a 31-26 lead.
Valentin led all scorers and rebounders at the half, with 18 and five respectively. .
The Hoosiers wasted no time setting the tone in the second half, going on a 10-3 run in the first several minutes to go up 41-29. It was all Indiana the rest of the way, as the Wildcats never came within six. IU earned its largest lead, 51-37, after DeMuth sank a three-pointer with 4:41 left to play.
On the rebounding end, IU came out on top with a 35-27 advantage over Northwestern. The Hoosiers held the Wildcats to just 33 percent shooting from the floor (16-of-48), and IU shot an impressive 50 percent of their own, 20-of-40.
Sophomore Melissa Miller led the Wildcats in scoring with nine points.
Indiana will have a bye on Thursday and continue with its schedule on Sunday, Feb. 19 against No. 10/9 Purdue in West Lafayette. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. and will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Fans can also follow the game on WHCC-FM 105.1 with Jeremy Gray on the call. Gametracker also will be available on IUHOOSIERS.com.
