Redshirt sophomore forward Taja Wilson reaches to put the ball in the net during the second half of Sunday’s game against Indiana at Breslin Center. The Spartans lost to the Hoosiers 68-63 in their first Big Ten game of the season.
In the span of three days, the MSU women’s basketball team went from a game it’ll always remember to one it can’t wait to forget.
The Spartans opened Big Ten play against Indiana on Sunday but failed to capture the magic they had against North Carolina, despite head coach Suzy Merchant calling it the team’s most important game to this point.
What resulted was MSU’s most listless effort of the season in a 68-63 loss to the Hoosiers at Breslin Center.
“This team has to bring it every night emotionally, mentally, detail-wise, intensity and it just wasn’t there,” Merchant said. “We need a little more spark. When we play that way, we’re a very good team. When we’re fighting and battling and it just wasn’t there tonight.”
Sunday’s effort was disappointing for Merchant because she felt the team’s intensity has been very high during recent weeks. Instead, she felt the team played on its heels even though the team went into halftime with a 10-point lead.
“I sensed it before we even played and I kept talking about it,” Merchant said. “There is only so much a coach can do. The kids have to get fired up, get after loose balls and jump up and get rebounds. There’s kids on this team that were great defensive rebounders Thursday that didn’t even get one today, or got one.”
MSU shot 29 percent for the game. Senior forward Aisha Jefferson, senior center Allyssa DeHaan and sophomore forward Lykendra Johnson shot a combined 6-of-31 from the field for 22 with three defensive rebounds.
Against North Carolina, the Spartans shot 48.2 percent and those three combined for 34 points on 12-of-21 shooting with 13 defensive rebounds.
Senior center Lauren Aitch said the team had a talk in the locker room following the game.
“We definitely had some emotional players who had a lot to say,” Aitch said. “I think everybody got across their point. We had our captains speaking and we had some underclassmen that were stepping up and saying some things and really explaining how they felt about it.”
But the big message was how the team needs to play for its seniors.
“When we were playing we played for the seniors,” Aitch said.
“We wanted them to do well and we wanted them to finish well. I just feel like our team needs to step up and everyone needs to keep playing hard and always have that focus and urgency.”
Junior forward Kalisha Keane said the team needs to learn this is the seniors’ last go-around.
“If you can’t muster up any kind of emotion for yourself, you should be able to muster it up for the person standing next to you that this is their last opportunity to play for a Big Ten championship,” Keane said. “I think that’s really what we need to understand from top to bottom.”
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