“We have to have that same focus, intensity (and) emotional level of commitment to get every rebound (and) hustle,” Merchant said. “Give Indiana a lot of credit. In the second half they just outworked us. They did everything in the second half that we did to North Carolina for 40 minutes. They got every loose ball, every rebound.”

The Spartans committed 24 fouls and sent the Hoosiers to the line 37 times. It’s the most free throws MSU has allowed this season and the most Indiana has shot.

“I thought our kids’ answer to defense was fouling,” Merchant said.

Although the statistics show MSU held a 51-49 rebounding edge, Indiana took it to the Spartans on the glass in the second half, with 30 boards to MSU’s 23. Of those 30, 16 were on the offensive glass while MSU grabbed just eight defensive rebounds the entire half.

“We didn’t match their intensity,” senior center Lauren Aitch said. “We came out there and kind of played it to their level. That was a team we should’ve rolled over. With our skill and our caliber of play, that’s something we should’ve done easily, but we came out there with no focus, we were fouling. We were doing things that weren’t characteristic of our team.”

MSU went into halftime up 39-29 thanks to the hot shooting of junior forward Kalisha Keane, who scored 11 points in the half on 4-of-6 shooting, including a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range. As a team, MSU shot 5-of-11 from long range in the first half.

The second half was a different story.

When the team needed it most, the Spartans were stone cold from not only deep, but everywhere.

The team shot an icy 21.1 percent in the half and had nearly as many points from the free-throw line (10) as from the field (14).

While Indiana wasn’t much better at 33.3 percent from the field, it found a hot hand — guard Jori Davis.

Davis scored 14 of her 19 points and grabbed eight of her 11 rebounds in the half.

She scored seven of Indiana’s first nine points in the half and hit two big free throws to give the Hoosiers a 66-63 lead in the final minutes.

The difference in the game came down to free throws. While MSU was splitting pairs at the line, the Hoosiers consistently were sinking two shots down the stretch.

Junior guard Brittney Thomas had a chance to tie the game with 1:40 remaining at the free-throw line, but she split the pair and Davis hit hers to seal the game.

“Coming in we knew the biggest things were rebounding and staying poised on defense,” Davis said.

“They have awesome athletes, they have such a great team, so we knew we had to do the little things like rebound, box out and at the end that would matter a lot and it did.”

MSU will have some time to work out the kinks of the loss, but the road won’t get easier from here.

The Spartans are off until Wednesday, when they host No. 9 Xavier at Breslin Center.