No. 10 IU Rolls Past Penn State In Big Ten Opener

Monday, December 6

Bloomington, Ind.

6 P.M. ET

Indiana University

6-2,1-0Big Ten

Penn State

4-5,0-1Big Ten

Penn St.

Indiana

No. 10 IU Rolls Past Penn State In Big Ten Opener

12/6/2021 8:36:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery IUWBB Players Postgame IUWBB Coach Moren Postgame Photo Gallery

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - In its first Big Ten game of the season, Indiana cruised to a 70-40 victory over the Penn State Lady Lions in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Monday night.

KEY MOMENTS

Senior Aleksa Gulbe set the tone for the game as she hit a short-corner jumper on her first shot attempt and then came up with a block on the defensive end on the next play.
Graduate Nicole Cardaño-Hillary's 3-pointer at the 1:32 mark put Indiana on an 8-0 run to give them a 17-9 lead.
The Hoosiers put on a display moving the ball as Graduate Ali Patberg threw a behind the back pass to Cardaño-Hillary, who dished it to Junior Mackenzie Holmes, and scored an easy layup at the 6:36 mark of the second quarter.
Sophomore Chloe Moore-McNeil broke the defender's ankles on a drive, then dumped it off to Gulbe who got fouled and made both free throws with 5:47 left in the second period.
At the half, Indiana led Penn State 37-23.
Cardaño-Hillary stole a Penn State pass and then immediately cashed in with a fast break layup bucket in the middle of the third quarter.
By the end of the third, Indiana was up by 30, leading Penn State 60-30.
Holmes put on a display of post moves, scoring on back-to-back possessions in the paint early in the fourth quarter.
Patberg's layup at the 5:28 mark in the fourth period gave IU its largest lead of the game of 36 points. They led 68-32 at the time.

NOTABLES

The Hoosiers have now won their Big Ten opener in four straight seasons, which marks the longest streak in school history.
Indiana has won five straight in the series against Penn State and nine of the last 10. The five straight in the series against Penn State is the most in the series history against the Lady Lions.
The Hoosiers had all five starters score in double-figures.
The 40 points the Indiana defense allowed to Penn State are the fewest the Hoosiers have given up in a Big Ten game since March 4, 2004 against Wisconsin (39).
The 30-point win is the fourth 30+ point win under head coach Teri Moren.
Mackenzie Holmes led the Hoosiers with 16 points on 7-of-10 from the field.
Nicole Cardaño-Hillary scored 14 points and added seven rebounds, five assists and five steals. It was the first five steal game for an IU player since Grace Berger did it on 11/22/19.
Cardaño-Hillary posted three 3-pointers in the game, her fourth game this season with three or more from long range. Cardaño-Hillary reached 200 career 3-pointers and now has 202 for her career.
After giving up a 3-pointer to open the second half, the Hoosiers used a 21-0 run to go up 58-24 at the 1:47 mark of the third quarter. Indiana held Penn State scoreless for seven minutes and 57 seconds in the third quarter.
Indiana did not allow Penn State to shoot any free-throws in the game.
It was the fourth game this season that the Hoosiers shot 50 percent or better from the field.
Indiana outrebounded Penn State 37-24.
Grace Berger scored 10 point and added six rebounds. Berger now has 1,099 points for her career, which is tied for 25^th on the Hoosiers all-time scoring list.
Indiana outscored Penn State 33-19 in the second half.

QUOTABLE
Indiana head coach Teri Moren
"It's a great bounce back game for us tonight. It was great to see the ball go in the basket, far greater than it did the other night against NC State. It was nice to see Nikki the way she bounced back after having a tough night. The only frustrating piece of the game is our turnovers. We want to be under 11 and once again, we're careless tonight I thought, especially in the first half and we got to figure out how to fix that because that could've been, we're trying to average right around 80 points, anytime you turn it over the way that we did, that's a possession lost and maybe we could've got our game goal tonight of 80 points if we just did a better job of taking care of the basketball. I think a lot of that had to do with, they were just a little bit out of sync there against the zone, they elevated their wings and were playing high, and I think we were trying to lead people to the open areas but there's one thing about being the ball handler and being somebody that's not willing to move into that open space. We'll have great film, there's going to be a lot of teaching moments as we continue to see, and I'm sure we will, zone throughout the season. But I'm really proud of our guys, how they bounced back after a really tough night the other night in terms of our lack of being able to score with any kind of ease. So, it's a great way to start out the Big Ten conference schedule."

UP NEXT
Indiana will host Fairfield on Thursday with a tip-off time of 7 p.m. ET at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The game will be broadcasted on Big Ten Network+.

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