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November
24, 2006 SYCAMORES STUMBLE LATE AT NO. 16 MICHIGAN STATE, 85-66 BOX SCORE (HTML) or BOX SCORE (PDF) EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Indiana State women’s basketball team trailed the No. 16 ranked Michigan State Spartans by just six points as late as 10 minutes left to go in tonight’s (Nov. 24) game, but the Spartan’s buried six second half 3-pointers en route to an 85-66 victory. ISU fell to 2-2 on the season, while the Spartans improved to 3-1. “We realize that we are not going to outscore everybody,” head coach Jim Wiedie said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence after our first three games. Michigan State is a much better team, especially when they press. We shoot a lot of threes. I thought we had some good looks but I thought Michigan State really did a good job eliminating any inside game that we had.” Indiana State once again came out of the gate blazing, as they connected on each of their first three 3-point field goal attempts, two by sophomore Leah Phillips, to take an early 9-6 lead. The advantage grew to 14-9 when freshman Sarah Paul got in the act as well with the Sycamores taking what proved to be their largest lead, five, with 14:20 left in the first half. Michigan State’s Victoria Lucas-Perry was on fire herself as she hit a pair of first half 3-pointers to help the Spartans capture a 38-26 lead heading into the locker room. The Sycamores battled tough in the contest, as Rachel Maenpaa’s turnaround jumper with 10:02 left in the game inched ISU as close as they would get, 58-52. Badly needing a stop, ISU got it as MSU’s Rene Haynes tossed up a 3-pointer, got her own rebound, and then fired inside to Allyssa DeHaan, who also missed. Freshman Maria Oslthoorn got the board, but through the ball away up the court for a turnover. MSU took advantage of that miscue with a Lucas-Perry 3-pointer to open up a 61-52 advantage. The lead would balloon to as many as 21, as the Spartans took control of the game in the later stages, but freshman Kelsey Luna hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead down to 16, 82-66, with just over a minute left. MSU’s Alisa Wulff drained a 3-pointer with 43 seconds remaining to yield the final score, 85-66. ISU hit 10 3-pointers, draining 10-of-29 from long range in the contest. The Spartans, who came in hitting just 22.5% of their threes, exploded from long range to hit 10-of-20 attempts from behind the arc. Lucas-Perry paced the Spartans with 30 points. The Sycamores were led by Leah Phillips and her 11 points in the game. She hit 3-of-7 attempts for the field, all 3-pointers, along with a pair of free throws. Indiana State was out-rebounded in the contest by a 41-27 margin, but played well defensively, forcing 21 MSU turnovers. The Sycamores return home on Tuesday, November 28 when they host Loyola-Chicago at 7:00 p.m. (ET) inside Hulman Center.
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