No. 7/6 Indiana Rolls To Road Win At Illinois
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Graduate student guard Ali Patberg led the way with a season-high 26 points as No. 7/6 IU cruised to a 93-61 road win at Illinois on Wednesday night.
KEY MOMENTS
• Indiana (17-3, 9-1 B1G) built a solid lead early in the first quarter as it got a couple quick buckets out the gate and led 12-4 at the media timeout.
• Sophomore guard Chloe Moore-McNeil stepped in to a baseline, extending the lead to 19-6 with 3:52 to go. The Hoosiers would use a 58.1 percent clip from the floor for a 28-8 lead after one.
• Freshman guard Kaitlin Peterson stuck a corner 3-pointer with 8:36 in the second as the Hoosiers continued to build its lead. Behind 12 points from Patberg, Indiana went 50 percent from the floor in the frame and hit 4 3-pointers as it increased its halftime lead to 30, 54-24. IU’s 54 points also set a new season-high for points in the first half.
• Berger chipped in a team-high six points in the third quarter as Indiana led by as many as 36 off a second chance opportunity by sophomore forward Kiandra Browne.
• All available Hoosiers saw action in the win, as they played with a variety of lineups in the fourth quarter. Peterson would score eight of her career-high 11 points in the final 10 minutes as IU’s bench scored 23 points on the night.
NOTABLE
• Indiana wins its 13th consecutive game over Illinois on Wednesday night, a streak that dates back to 2013.
• The Hoosiers went 57.6 percent from the floor (34-59) and put up 20 assists, its third-highest single game total of the season.
• Knocking down 10 triples on the night set a new season-high beyond-the-arc as it also shot 45.5 percent from long range.
• Patberg moved into sole possession of 9th place in all-time scoring with her season-high 26 points. She passed Jori Davis (10th, 1587) and Jamie Braun (9th, 1603) in all-time scoring and now has 1,611 career-points. The Columbus, Ind. native went 9-for-15 from the floor and 4-for-9 from 3-point range.
• Senior forward Aleksa Gulbe added 18 points, seven rebounds and went 7-for-8 from the line while senior guard Grace Berger added 13 points, a game-high eight rebounds and seven assists by going 6-for-8 from the floor.
• Peterson set a new career-high 11 points on three triples along with two assists.
• IU scored 21 points off Illinois turnovers, had 17 second chance points and had 23 bench points.
• It also won on the glass, 35-25, including 11 offensive rebounds. Along with Berger’s eight boards, Gulbe added seven and Browne added six.
QUOTABLE
Indiana head coach Teri Moren
“It was a great win tonight. It’s my sister’s birthday and this is exactly what she wanted and Happy Birthday to my sister, Leann. Our kids came out and I thought they looked really comfortable, got into some easy flow early, early easy flow for us offensively. Saw a lot of those shots go down for us whether they were attacks at the rim, whether they were kickout 3’s. I don’t want to pick one or two of our players tonight I thought all of them came in and contributed and did something really well throughout. The fact that we shot it as well as we did, 58 percent and 45 from the 3-point line, this coach tonight is finding very few things that I can be upset with, with this group. Great win for us and onward, we’ve got to move forward now to a really good Michigan State team.”
UP NEXT
The Hoosiers return home on Saturday to host Michigan State in its annual Head to the Hall game where tickets are $1 for all fans. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. ET on B1G+.