FORT MYERS, FLA. – Sophomore guard Yarden Garzon scored a career-high 23 points on her 20th birthday as she led No. 21 Indiana past No. 19 Tennessee, 71-57, on Thanksgiving night at the 2023 Elevance Health Fort Myers Tip-Off Classic.
KEY MOMENTS
A low scoring first quarter by both teams, Garzon’s first triple at 6:08 on the clock made it an 8-4 lead. The Hoosiers (4-1) would come away with the first quarter edge, 12-9 behind Garzon’s five points.
IU would shoot 53.3 percent in the second quarter as it got rolling on a graduate student forward Mackenzie Holmes and-1 opportunity and a transition 3-pointer from senior guard Sara Scalia.
As part of an 11-0 run, Garzon would connect on a left-wing triple, her fourth of the night, as Tennessee (3-2) called a timeout with 3:00 on the clock. Indiana took a 33-21 lead into the break.
Outscoring Tennessee 11-4 with 6:26 left in the third, a Scalia dagger forced a Tennessee timeout as IU built a 44-25 lead. They closed the half by holding the Lady Vols to one field goal in the final 4:12.
Holmes scored eight of her 17 points in the fourth quarter as the Hoosiers shot 50 percent in the final frame.
NOTABLE
Indiana evens the all-time series with Tennessee, 2-2. This is the largest win for the Hoosiers in the series (14) and have won back-to-back games against the Lady Vols.
Garzon connected on a season-high five triples and went 5-for-6 from 3-point range.
Holmes added 17 points and a team-high six rebounds as the Hoosiers won on the boards, 42-39.
Scalia also scored in double figures with 10 points and hit a pair of triples.
Senior guard Chloe Moore-McNeil dished out a team-high six assists, the 17th game of her career with five or more assists. The Greenfield, Tenn. native also picked up three steals.
Indiana had a season-high 10 3-pointers and shot a season-best 45.5 from the arc.
QUOTABLE
Indiana head coach Teri Moren
“Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and this girl to my right (Yarden Garzon). It’s her birthday so double celebration, triple celebration. Again, we have so much respect for Tennessee and even without Rickea (Jackson) we knew they were still going to be a handful. They are so talented with so many great pieces We knew that the game was going to be won if we could win the boards. I thought our kids came out from the beginning and, just as I said to them, sort of a line in the sand and said this is not what we’re going to do is give up second and third chance opportunities. At least not a lot of them, not 19 of them. I thought our kids just battled throughout the night. The first half, I didn’t think, was clean offensive other than Yarden got going from beyond the arc but I thought we were much better in the second half with the some of our offense, moving better. This is a good win for us on the road in a great environment and against a really good basketball team. We are thankful and grateful that we were able to put it together tonight.”
UP NEXT
Indiana will face Princeton on Saturday in its final game at the 2023 Elevance Health Fort Myers Tip-Off at 11 a.m. ET.
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