No. 6/6 Indiana Drops Back-and-Forth Affair to No. 2/3 NC State

Thursday, December 2

Bloomington, Ind.

7 P.M. ET

Indiana University

5-2,0-0Big Ten

#2/3 NC State

7-1,0-0ACC

NC State

Indiana

No. 6/6 Indiana Drops Back-and-Forth Affair to No. 2/3 NC State

12/2/2021 9:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In a battle of top-10 teams inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Thursday night (Dec. 2), No. 6 Indiana could not overcome a late surge from No. 2 NC State, falling 66-58 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

KEY MOMENTS

After a missed three-point shot by IU, junior forward Mackenzie Holmes tipped out the ball to senior forward Grace Berger. Berger whipped a pass back into Holmes in the post who was fouled on the shot. Holmes earned a trip to the line where she hit two free throws for her first points of the game to bring NC State's lead down to six points.
Following an offensive rebound from graduate guard Ali Patberg, sophomore guard Chloe Moore-McNeil hit a corner three to close the Wolfpack lead down to two in the final minute of the first quarter.
The Hoosiers took their first lead of the night after Holmes cashed a three from the right-hand arc to go up 14-13 early in the second quarter.
Patberg made back-to-back free throws after drawing a foul in front of the basket. This extended IU's lead to five, its biggest of the first half.
IU took a 23-21 advantage into the locker-room at the break.
In the early stages of the second half, Berger started the fast break before dishing off a no-look pass to Patberg who laid it in for an easy bucket.
After NC State took a 32-31 lead, senior forward Aleksa Gulbe hit a three from the top of the arc to put the Hoosiers back in front in the third quarter.
Holmes buried a three from the top of the arc early in the fourth to bring IU within one point.
After graduate student guard Nicole Cardaño-Hillary drew an NC State offensive foul, Gulbe buried a three with a hand in her face to trim the deficit to 48-47. But the Hoosiers would get no closer as the Wolfpack but the game away in the final minute of play.

NOTABLES

Holmes led the Hoosiers with 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the field. It is her 14^th career game scoring at least 20 points.
Holmes scored six of the Hoosiers first eight points of the second half. Holmes had 15 of her 24 points in the second half.
Grace Berger tallied 10 points and added nine rebounds and five assists.
Ali Patberg posted 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Indiana held NC State to 36 percent shooting in the first half. The Hoosiers held NC State to 14 points below their season average in points per game.
Sophomore forward Kiandra Browne tallied a season-high six rebounds.
The game against NC State was the Hoosiers second against a top-10 team in their last three games as they faced 7/5 Stanford last week.

QUOTABLE
"We're disappointed, obviously. Felt like we had every chance to win this game tonight and unfortunately just didn't hit enough shots. I feel like I'm a broken record cause I kind of said the same thing when we were down in the Bahamas. But right now, getting anything easy, anything outside of Mackenzie tonight to really go down for us was hard, was difficult. We felt like as a step we'll get a bunch of good shots, really good looks at the basket, and they just didn't go down. There's no excuse for that, they just didn't go down. You have to obviously make shots against a team like NC State. I thought we put pressure on them defensively, got the shots we wanted. On the flip side of that, we did some really good things defensively. We were stingy particularly in the first half, and then we get it within one and shot clock starts to run down and Kayla Jones has to shoot a contested, what we thought was a contested shot right at the horn, the shot clock running down and it goes bottom of the basket, so that was sort of, not a backbreaker cause we still have time, but it certainly deflated us a little bit, and so that's a teaching moment, we got to be able to pick ourselves up when stuff like that happens cause it was such a great defensive stand for us, and yet she's able to shoot it quickly and it goes down for her. But we have to be better with how we respond to that. It's not what happens to you, it's how you respond to what happens to you, and I thought when we got them over to the sideline, you could tell that they were a little deflated from that one particular play. We will be better, that's a good basketball team, they have a chance to go to the final four, they're picked to win the ACC, and we had every chance tonight. Unfortunately, the ball just wouldn't go in the basket like we needed it to, but really still proud of our group and how hard they fought and really happy and appreciative of the group, the fans that we had tonight in Assembly Hall. The place was outstanding and to our marketing folks here at Indiana, to fill the Hall tonight with a lot of noise was really special. I want to make sure I tell them just how grateful we are as a program."

UP NEXT
Indiana opens up Big Ten play on Monday when it hosts Penn State. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network.

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