No. 14 Indiana Improves To 5-0 In Big Ten Play With Win Over Penn State
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Graduate student forward Mackenzie Holmes scored 21 points as No. 14 Indiana used a big second half to get past Penn State, 75-67, on Thursday night inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
KEY MOMENTS
- Indiana (14-1, 5-0 B1G) opened the first quarter in a tightly contested game. An early triple from senior guard Sara Scalia would give the Hoosiers a 9-4 lead with 7:47 to play. This would be the largest lead for the Hoosiers in the first half.
- Penn State (10-5, 1-3 B1G) banked in a deep three at the buzzer to give the Lady Lions a 39-34 lead at halftime and their largest lead of the half.
- After an early 6-0 run from the Lady Lions, the Cream and Crimson bounced back with an emphatic 17-6 run of their own to end the quarter with a 55-51 lead. During the run, the Hoosiers stifling defense held Penn State to just one made basket in over six minutes of play.
- Senior guard Sydney Parrish racked up nine of her 18 points in the third quarter with back-to-back-to-back baskets, including a deep triple with 6:02 to play. Clutch free throws in the bonus from senior guards Chloe Moore-McNeil and Parrish sealed the win for Hoosiers.
NOTABLE
- For the first time in program history, Indiana starts 5-0 in the Big Ten.
- The Hoosiers also extended their win streak to 13 games. It’s the fourth longest win streak in program history.
- Holmes had a team-high in scoring, putting up 21 points, making this her thirteenth consecutive game scoring in double figures. She also led the team in rebounds, pulling down 13 in the win.
- The Gorham, Maine native recorded her fourth double-double of the season.
- Moore-McNeil led the Hoosiers in assists with four. She also recorded 16 points.
- IU had four players score in double digits against Penn State – Holmes (21), Parrish (20), Moore-McNeil (16), and Scalia (11).
- At the free-throw line, the Hoosiers outshot the Lady Lions 78 percent to 52 percent.
- Indiana increases its win streak in the series against Penn State to seven games.
QUOTABLE
Indiana head coach Teri Moren
“They’re all not as pretty as we would like them to be sometimes and a lot of that had to do with Penn State. They were terrific and really made us uncomfortable with their defense and then really made us uncomfortable as they just put their head down and continued to attack us all night off the bounce. We turned the ball over too much. I thought in the second half, we did, we took way more pride. I think we got a little we played mad which was good, and I thought Syd Parrish was a great spark for us. Just trying to will her team to hustle plays. I thought Lexi (Bargesser) came in on the defensive side was really good, but we have to be able to turn it up in the practice and be so much better against a team that pressures the way Penn State did tonight and be able to handle ourselves better. But we also have to be so much better defensively and take more pride in just guarding one-on-one and we just did adjust but we stood around a lot, we were in our gaps, we didn’t try to give any kind of support to our teammates. We were a little bit better in the second half but just by a little. We have to go back and watch film and watch ourselves standing around and realize that when teams want to put their head down and go downhill, how we have to adjust to that is by being in more of a support role for our teammates. We’ll learn. We will learn from that but that’s a great Penn State team that plays hard. Carolyn (Kieger) has done a great job with them and now that they’ve got (Makenna) Marisa back, they’re going to win games.”
UP NEXT
The Hoosiers will face No. 3 Iowa on the road on Saturday night in Iowa City. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.