It was almost magical, the way senior guard Christie Pung’s layup floated into the basket to tie up the MSU women’s basketball team’s game against Indiana on Sunday.
The clock read 18.3 seconds, the scoreboard was lit with matching 50s and the referee blew his whistle. Pung was going to the line.
She had one shot, one chance to bring MSU bouncing back from an eight-game losing streak. The 3,416 fans in Breslin Student Events Center were silent, on their feet.
Her first shot was ugly. It hit the rim, and bounced toward the MSU bench. But again, the referee blew his whistle. A lane violation. One more chance.
And when Pung took the team’s 18th free throw of the afternoon, just like 50 percent of the ones before it, the ball rolled around the rim and fell into the waiting hands of a Hoosier.
“I was just thinking, ‘I have another chance,’” Pung said. “I wanted to make the most of it, but I didn’t.”
Eighteen seconds and an Indiana timeout later, the Hoosiers got the ball to forward Erin McGinnis. She faked a shot, shaking off freshman forward Julie Pagel, cut to the baseline and knocked down the game-winner with one second left to win 52-50.
“This game was us still growing and getting better, there’s no doubt about that,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “But I will hold the team accountable for their free-throw shooting. Fifty percent is not going to cut it.”
MSU (8-15 overall, 2-10 Big Ten), which ranks last in the Big Ten with a .597 free-throw percentage, hit 9-of-18 from the stripe. Indiana’s record improved to 16-7, 7-5.
But for the second-straight game, McCallie felt her team showed a combined effort, despite losing. On Thursday, MSU almost knocked down No. 16 Penn State at home.
This time, Pagel paced the Spartans with a career-high 23 points and a game-high nine boards. Indiana center Jill Chapman led all scorers with 25 points.
“This one hurts because we know we could have beat them,” Pagel said.
MSU claimed a 3-2 lead at 17:59 when Pung flung in a three-pointer from the top of the key.
The Spartans kept that lead until center Jill Chapman grabbed a high pass inside and tossed in the bucket, putting the Hoosiers up 8-7 with 14:28 remaining in the first half.
MSU brought it back within two when Pagel ran in for a layup and drew a foul on Chapman. At the line, Pagel made her one shot, setting the score at 22-20 with 2:59 left in the half.
Pagel took the ball back to the line with 1:43 on the clock and made her second shot. Indiana had a chance to get a more comfortable lead going into the locker room, but hit the ball out with 27.3 left.
That was all MSU needed to get the ball back to Pagel for a 4-foot hook to take its first halftime lead, 23-22, since it began its slide on Jan. 11.
In the half, both teams shot 33 percent from the field, while MSU was schooled at the free-throw line, 83 percent to 53 percent. The Spartans hit 8-of-15, while the Hoosiers went 5-of-6.
Pagel led the half for MSU with 11 points and five boards, while Chapman claimed 14 of Indiana’s 22 points.
After Indiana guard Rainey Alting hit a trey to open the second half, senior center Erin Skelly knotted the score at 25 with a layup.
But in the next four minutes, the Hoosiers went on a 10-2 run, powered by the long shot of McGinnis. In the first half, McGinnis’ only two points came at the stripe, while she banked 13 second-half points.
“We let her get on track too much,” McCallie said. “We let her get to a point of confidence.”
The Spartans fought back from their 10-point deficit with baskets by Pagel and senior guard Donita Johnson, before sophomore guard Vnemina Reese’s trey pulled them within five, 41-36 with 11:28 left in the game.
Another Hoosier surge put Indiana back up by 10, before MSU rallied on a 9-0 run, to clog the score at 50 on Pung’s three.
McGinnis then sealed the Hoosier’s win, and to McCallie, the second loss that really counts.
“We’ve turned the corner,” McCallie said. “I look at this as two losses - to Indiana and Penn State. Before that we were just giving in to circumstances.”
