An important week for Indiana State basketball (the women and men) started with a positive note as the Lady Sycamores went on the road to Saint Louis and pulled out a late come from behind victory. To no one's surprise Anna Munn played the part of hero making the go ahead basket with under a minute left in the game. The ISU guard scored 14 points and teamed up with forward Rachael Mahan who led the team with 23 points.
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| Courtesy ISU |
There are two main points that should be recognized in the victory. First, the Sycamores won the turnover battle. ISU gave the ball away 17 times and had 13 assists compared to 23 turnovers and 11 assists for the Billikens. Now, I won't go off preaching that it's acceptable to turn the ball over 17 times. The ISU women must continue to improve, but it's a step in the right direction. Indiana State has been battling turnover problems from day one and coach Teri Moren has continually stressed a need to limit give aways.
ISU is clearly a team based around defense and relies on the majority of offensive output from two players. If a basketball team is built in that fashion, they must hold on to the ball; it's essential to having success. A higher rate of turnovers is more acceptable for a team that continually pushes the ball down the court, scores points easily, and has a high possession percentage. That is not the Sycamores, so it's good to see them limit turnovers in an important game.
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| Courtesy ISU |
The second major point to take away from the victory is location. ISU has struggled on the road for some time now. This is the Lady Sycamores first win away from the Hulman Center this season (including a pretty bad loss at IUPUI). In fact, ISU has only won two games under Teri Moren (this is her third season). So, Indiana State got an important victory addressing a couple of key weaknesses. It was exactly the kind of win necessary to build confidence in the players and momentum for the team.
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| Courtesy The Daily Bruin |
The Sycamore men have a major test upcoming on Saturday as the New Mexico Lobos come to town. The ISU men have been on a roll ever since losing their opener in Los Angeles to a then highly ranked Bruins squad. Anytime ISU faces a nationally ranked team it is news, but especially welcoming such a talented opponent to Terre Haute.
The last two times Indiana State faced ranked opponents at the Human Center was in 06'/07' against Butler and 05'/06' against the Hoosiers. Despite the big loss to UCLA there is more belief that ISU can compete with the Lobos (although that has more to do with the Sycamores then New Mexico.) ISU has not lost since facing UCLA and has stacked some impressive victories including a road game at Ball State. Indiana State has a very young squad with key transfers and players returning from injury last season, so they are still learning to gel and that process seems to be improving each week.
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| Courtesy ISU |
So, at the highest point of their season to date, the Sycamores will face the #25 ranked team in the nation at home. This is a serious test of where ISU stands and if they should be considered one of the better teams in the Missouri Valley Conference. Remember, the pre-season rankings had ISU finishing 7th. Greg Lansing will have his squad ready for former coaching partner and Indiana great Steve Alford. After the game, we might know a lot more about the rest of the season.
