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Spartans fall to Iowa, 59-54, in Big Ten semifinals

Jefferson scores 23 points in loss

March 6, 2010

Senior forward Aisha Jefferson and sophomore guard Porschè Poole, right, react after the conclusion of their semifinal game of the Big Ten Tournament on Saturday night at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Spartans lost to Iowa 59-54.

Photo by Hannah Engelson | The State News

Indianapolis — Rebounding served the MSU women’s basketball team well during its win against Michigan on Friday, as the Spartans were plus-12 on the glass.

Saturday, with a trip to the Big Ten Tournament championship game on the line, rebounding became the team’s biggest enemy.

The Spartans were outrebounded by seven and allowed Iowa to turn 15 offensive rebounds into 19 points as the Hawkeyes sent the Spartans packing, 59-54, at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Iowa will face Ohio State, which beat Wisconsin, 82-73, Saturday night in the semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

“That was an entire game where I felt like we just could not get a defensive rebound for whatever reason,” MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said. “You have to give Iowa credit for really hustling after them and taking advantage of maybe us not doing the job and chasing down opportunities and then taking advantage and scoring.”

The Hawkeyes snapped MSU’s seven-game winning streak and are the only team to beat the Spartans in their past 13 games, doing so twice.

Taking particular advantage of MSU’s rebounding woes were Iowa guard Kachine Alexander (10, three offensive) and center Morgan Johnson (11, five offensive).

Alexander, the Big Ten’s leading rebounder, in particular was deadly late, scoring six points and grabbing two rebounds with a critical assist in the final two minutes. She added 14 points and four assists to her 10 rebounds.

With MSU down, 55-52, with 30 seconds left, Alexander missed a jumper but got her own rebound and was fouled. She hit all four of her free throws down the stretch.

“It wasn’t there,” senior center Lauren Aitch said of the rebounding. “Usually our rebounding is one of our strong points and tonight we just didn’t have that focus.”

The Spartans wasted a vintage performance from senior forward Aisha Jefferson, who scored a season-high 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting in 29 minutes, her highest total in a regulation game this season.

“We were struggling offensively and she kept us in it, from the arc, from the inside, high post area, scoring on the block,” Merchant said. “I think she was just really feeling it. We wanted to make sure we kept her in as long as we could. I mean, she’s kind of tough to manage sometimes with her situation with her injuries and whatnot, but I thought she played her heart out.”

Jefferson was the only Spartan in double figures. Iowa, however, had four players in double figures, led by Alexander’s 14 and guard Kamille Wahlin’s 13. Guard Trisha Nesbitt added a career-high 10 points. Jamie Printy also scored 10.

Senior center Allyssa DeHaan, who missed a majority of Friday’s game with back spasms, played but did not start for only the eighth time in her career.

She entered the game for the first time 4:59 into the first half and wasn’t laboring much. She finished with two points and two rebounds in 20 minutes. Merchant said she wasn’t optimistic about DeHaan playing after she couldn’t get through shootaround, but DeHaan played through the pain.

“The trainers and doctor worked on me a few times to relax my muscle in my back,” DeHaan said. “They got me to stand upright, which was positive and we just kept heat on it between when I was on the court and on the bench, so that helped a lot.”

Much like Friday’s quarterfinal game with U-M, MSU got off to a slow start as the Hawkeyes at one point led by as many as six.

But Jefferson single-handedly kept the Spartans in the game. When Iowa opened the game with a basket off a turnover, Jefferson drained a 3-pointer.

Later, Jefferson scored seven of MSU’s nine points as the Spartans turned a 14-9 deficit into an 18-17 lead, its first since Jefferson’s triple gave them a 3-2 lead.

The two teams went back-and-forth from there. MSU held its largest lead of the half at two on a layup by DeHaan but the Spartans went into half up one, 26-25.

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The lead did not last long in the second half. Printy extended Iowa’s lead to four, 32-28. Iowa would hold a three-six point lead for much of the first part of the half until junior forward Kalisha Keane tied the game at 42 with a pair of free throws with 9:20 left.

Following one of Iowa’s 22 turnovers, junior guard Brittney Thomas hit a jump-stop jumper to give MSU a 44-42 lead, capping a 7-0 run and forcing Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder to call timeout.

“We had to change the way we were playing,” Bluder said. “They got kind of mad and they were taking it out on us. They were being a lot more aggressive and we had to change the way we were playing. We knew we could get back into it.”

Then, MSU’s offense went cold. Bluder said she emphasized defense during the timeout and it paid off. It nearly was seven-and-a-half minutes until someone other than Jefferson or Thomas scored when sophomore forward Lykendra Johnson tied the game at 52 with 1:26 to play.

Next came the game’s crucial play as Alexander dished to Wahlin, who was 3-of-10 from the field at that point, and she drained what stood up as the game-winning triple with 1:04 left.

“The play call for me was to either get a 3-pointer off or get a ball screen,” Wahlin said. “So I just tried to – when it comes down to crunch time, you just forget about all the other shots you miss and you just try to step up and knock it down for your teammates.”

The Spartans now are off until at least March 20. They’ll find out their seeding in the NCAA Tournament on March 15.

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