IU Heats Up Late, Defeats Samford in OT

Friday, December 11

Bloomington, Ind.

7 pm

Indiana University

7-2

SAMFORD

6-4

OT 1

Samford

Indiana

12/11/2015 9:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Teri Moren knew what happened at Indiana State could happen again. She just didn't necessarily think it would be so quickly.

Indiana needed overtime to defeat Samford 65-56 Friday night in a contest eerily similar to IU's 3-point win against Indiana State just three days earlier. The Hoosiers (7-2) connected on one lone field goal in the fourth quarter but did just enough defensively to force overtime where they outscored the Bulldogs 13-4 to remain undefeated at Assembly Hall.

Indiana's shooters didn't panic even when they went cold in the fourth quarter for a second consecutive game. Almost prophetically, Moren reminded her team there would be stretches where they struggled offensively just as they had against the Sycamores just days before.

They needed to pull together if it happened again, Moren told her team.

The advice paid off.

"I thought we saw the result of maybe that conversation," Moren said. "We were down. Instead of pulling apart, we pulled together."

Sophomore forward Amanda Cahill led the way for Indiana in overtime, scoring eight unanswered points before fellow sophomore guard Tyra Buss finished the game off at the line.

Cahill's overtime outburst capped off her first double-double of the season. She finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds, perhaps none more important than the eight she rattled off in overtime after missing her lone shot attempt in the fourth quarter.

"Once it hit overtime we really needed to kick it up a notch," Cahill said. "We were just looking at different looks. I was lucky enough to make them."

Cahill's late-game heroics came only after a frenzied finish to a fourth quarter that saw only 13 combined points.

Samford's Taylor Reece tied the game at 50 with 4:51 in regulation before the teams combined to go 4:17 without scoring a point. Samford's Kassidy Blevins broke the drought with a layup with just 34 seconds left, putting the Bulldogs up 52-50.

Buss got fouled on a layup try with 11.1 seconds left in regulation on Indiana's ensuing possession. She hit both free-throws, forcing overtime after Samford couldn't connect on the other end before the buzzer sounded.

"Those were probably the biggest free-throws of her career here," Moren said.

Indiana wouldn't have been in the position to force overtime at all had it not been for its defensive press late in the third quarter to pull the Hoosiers back from an 11-point deficit.

After Cahill hit a pair of free throws to cut Samford's lead to seven points with 2:13 left in the third quarter, junior guard Alexis Gassion stole the inbound and dumped a pass off to Cahill with a layup to cut the Bulldogs' lead to just five.

Another turnover and a Buss layup brought Indiana within three points. Then the Bulldogs (6-4) traveled, leading to Gassion getting fouled and hitting a pair of free-throws. She forced another steal on the next possession—Samford's seventh turnover in four minutes—leading to another Buss layup to complete the 12-point turnaround and give Indiana a 46-45 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

"I think we had that momentum," Buss said. "We played really hard. We came out flat to begin with and we really came together in that third whenever we started getting steals. We kind of just played with that momentum."

The momentum was enough for Indiana to pull off the latest in a series of what Moren called "gritty" wins. The overtime victory follows up the Hoosiers' one-possession win against Indiana State from Tuesday and a back-and-forth win against Georgia Tech at home in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge a week earlier.

Moren told her team those types of games were possible. They'll probably happen again, too.

And when they do, she'll want to see more of what she saw Friday night.

"One thing that I was really happy with, and I know the coaches were too, was just how we pulled together at the end," Cahill said. "I think maybe in the past or last year when we got in these types of situations down the stretch, we'd pull apart. I think today we really stuck together."