Merchant disappointed in MSU's defensive effort against Iowa

If the MSU women’s basketball team showed anything during its four-game winning streak, it was that good defense led to good transition offense.

Merchant

Against Iowa on Sunday, the Spartans showed that bad defense leads to all-around struggles. When all was said and done, MSU’s winning streak was snapped with a 77-66 loss.

“We scored 66 points, that’s enough to win,” MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said. “The problem was we didn’t just defend enough to win. We didn’t get very many stops defensively that could lead to easy buckets. That was something we had been doing.”

For much of the game, Iowa had its way with the Spartans. Getting into the lane, driving and kicking — the Hawkeyes did it all. Merchant said she was mad and disappointed with her team’s defensive effort.

“We were kind of going to do the pick your poison thing and say, ‘OK, you’re not going to get 3-point looks,’ but there were a few that got away from us where we just kind of went brain dead,” Merchant said.

“I really felt like we were a good matchup for them. I felt like we were ready to play the way we were going to play them, but we didn’t do a very good job of playing one-on-one defense.”

The Spartans also were hurt by Iowa’s rebounding, as MSU was outrebounded for only the third time this season. The Hawkeyes held a plus-10 edge on the glass. In the prior two times the Spartans were outrebounded, the combined total was nine.

“This team hasn’t been outrebounded like that this year,” Merchant said. “That team should not be plus-10 against us. I think that, to me, showed a little bit of that lack of focus and effort on our part. That’s one thing we have to tighten up and clean up. That should be a given night-in and night-out.”

Merchant also cited fouls as an issue in Sunday’s loss. When the Spartans have struggled this season, they have racked up fouls.

In MSU’s eight losses, the team averages 22 personal fouls. In the team’s 15 wins, the Spartans averaged 17.7 per game.

“We needed to quit fouling in that game, as simple as that sounds,” Merchant said.

Mess in the middle

Ohio State sits on top of the Big Ten at 11-2. After that, it’s one big mess.

Purdue is holding down second place at 8-5. Following the Boilermakers are four teams (Wisconsin, Penn State, MSU, Indiana) with six losses, three teams (Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa) with seven losses, one team with eight losses (Minnesota) and one with nine (Illinois).

The Spartans have six games left and want to remain in the top five so they clinch a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

Injury update

Merchant said junior forward Cetera Washington, who injured her right ankle while saving a loose ball Saturday, was “fine,”

Washington left the game in the second half after trying to save a loose ball. She did return later in the game in a defense-for-offense situation with junior forward Kalisha Keane, who had four fouls.