Indiana

Indiana drops third straight home game with 73-66 loss to USC

Published

1 year ago

January 20, 2025

Indiana drops third straight home game with 73-66 loss to USC

Sunday afternoon in Assembly Hall offered another familiar feeling for Indiana women’s basketball: the lights and glamour of a big game without the desired result.

For the second time this season, Indiana was close to taking down a top-five opponent on their home floor but came up short, falling 73-66 to No. 4 USC.

Indiana faced the task of defending some of the best players in the country. Although the Hoosiers did well at times, the talents of JuJu Watkins and the other Trojans proved too much to overcome.

Lexus Bargesser and Chloe Moore-McNeil were assigned to defend Watkins and did well in the first quarter. They pressed her hard, face-guarding her while forcing everything to the left side. Any time Watkins caught the ball, multiple bodies came flooding her way. Watkins scored just one point in the first quarter.

However, as the game went on and USC adjusted, the offense flowed easier for the rest of the day. Watkins and the Trojans found their groove, doing most of their damage in transition.

One of the game’s biggest plays came in the final seconds of the third quarter. Indiana was about to take a two-point lead into the final ten minutes when Watkins, with five seconds remaining, took the ball from one end of the floor to the other, put up a left-wing three, and gave USC a one-point lead right at the buzzer. This momentum swing came in one of the game’s most important moments. Watkins led all scorers at the end of the day with 22 points, including six rebounds.

A lack of shot-making proved to be the undoing of an Indiana win. The Hoosiers and Trojans finished with similar results from the field, 37.5 percent and 39 percent, respectively, but the difference came from three and the free throw line. The Hoosiers shot 27.6 percent from deep, with multiple open looks from the outside failing to connect. And from the line, USC shot 21-for-24.

“When you look at how they scored, it doesn’t seem that overwhelming,” Teri Moren said postgame. “Then you look at the free throws, and that’s the game right there.”

Indiana had opportunities to climb back into the game, but the missed shots deflated Assembly Hall any time the ball didn’t go through the basket.

“I feel like at times we were getting great looks, and then I think at times we went away from what got us those great looks,” Moore-McNeil said. “I think that was really important, especially when you’re playing a great team like USC; you can’t have that kind of slippage.”

Turnovers were also costly for the Hoosiers. Indiana committed 15, which resulted in an extra 17 points for the Trojans.

At the start of the third quarter, Chloe Moore-McNeil made a pair of turnovers that Moren stated “took the wind out of us.” They happened a minute apart with nine minutes on the clock. Indiana inbounded the ball twice, and in a matter of seconds, a broken-up reversal and a failed entry pass led to USC running the floor both times. That type of mistake piled up and held the Hoosiers back.

Despite three Hoosiers in double figures and a double-double from Sydney Parrish, Indiana’s missed opportunities offensively caused the result.

Another intense battle with a top-ranked opponent proved this Indiana squad has the talent to compete with the best. They’ve shown they can play some of their best basketball in the most intense matchups, but the issues lie in the games outside of the marquee opponents. They weren’t at their best against Harvard, Butler, or even three days ago against Illinois.

“I think we were trending in a really good direction after we got back from, you know, early on and going to Iowa, winning at Iowa was hard,” Moren said. “Then we came back; we certainly took a step back, I thought, the other night against a really good Illinois team that came in and shot it well inside the hall.

“But again, I’ll go back to it; all of them are so important. This is such a great league. And we can’t have a different mindset, right? Against UCLA and against USC, the mindset and strategy of being engaged in what we’re trying to do night in and night out. It has to be the same, no matter what the opponent is.”

Right now, Indiana is in a solid position to earn another NCAA tournament bid. But to stay there, the Hoosiers must show the same intent in every game.

“Our room for error is very small,” Moren explained. “And we got to be so good on so many levels, whether it’s coverages, whether it’s our actions that we’re running offensively and their screening actions and there are things that are happening inside the actions that we can’t forget to do, executing all of it. So we got to just keep our head down and keep grinding and realize that it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint.”

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

Filed to:

Source link

Indiana

Highlights: Beech Grove at Whiteland; February 27, 2026

Published

5 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Highlights: Beech Grove at Whiteland; February 27, 2026

WHITELAND, Ind. (WISH) — “The Zone” featured highlights from eight high school boys basketball games from across central Indiana on Friday.

Watch highlights of Beech Grove at Whiteland above.

Final Score: Whiteland 89 Beech Grove 61

“The Zone” airs each Friday at 11:08 p.m. Click here to watch ‘The Zone’ for basketball highlights on February 27, 2026.

Source link

Indiana

Is Darryn Peterson Trying to Avoid Indiana?

Published

17 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Is Darryn Peterson Trying to Avoid Indiana?

The Indiana Pacers are hoping to retain their 2026 first-round pick, which is protected 1-4 and 10-30. If the selection lands between 5 and 9, it conveys to the Los Angeles Clippers as part of the Ivica Zubac–Bennedict Mathurin trade.

At the top of the 2026 NBA Draft class, three names are consistently labeled as generational talents: AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer and Darryn Peterson.

Indiana would welcome any of the three. The bigger question is whether that feeling would be mutual.

On a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons was joined by draft analysts Tate Frazier and J. Kyle Mann. During the discussion, Mann shared an interesting note about Peterson.

“I’ve gotten the impression from talking to people close to Darryn,” Mann said, “that Darryn is more likely to say, I’m interested in being the full on brain of this team. I don’t really want to play with another superstar, I want to be the center of the universe.”
J. Kyle Mann on The Bill Simmons Podcast
Advertisement

If that perception holds weight, it creates an intriguing dynamic.

The Pacers were one game away from an NBA championship last season and already feature two established stars in Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam. Indiana is not a franchise searching for a singular identity, it already has one.

To be clear, Mann’s comments reflect conversations and impressions, not a public statement from Peterson himself. Still, the fit is worth examining. Indiana’s backcourt rotation already includes Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and T.J. McConnell. If Peterson were the pick, the Pacers would find ways to get him on the floor. He is that talented. But Indiana could not offer him an immediate “face of the franchise” role the way a Brooklyn, Sacramento or Washington might.

Mann also offered insight into how Dybantsa may view a situation like Indiana’s.

“AJ, people that know them both have told me that AJ is probably more likely to fit in with an Indiana,” Mann said. “Which is interesting because AJ likes to have the ball. Is he willing to be quick off of the ball with Haliburton? I just think that’s an interesting wrinkle in this.”
J. Kyle Mann on The Bill Simmons Podcast

The contrast is fascinating.

Hearing that Dybantsa would fit in more than Peterson is intriguing. Play style wise, I would lean more towards Peterson’s fitting how Indiana likes to play, especially with how Dybantsa has been utilized at BYU.

Jan 24, 2026; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Kansas Jayhawks guard Darryn Peterson (22) looks to pass against BYU Cougars forward AJ Dybantsa (3) during the first half at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

If we’re talking locker room fit, I think Dybantsa would embody what a Pacer is all about. Comes from a small market. Wants to win and doesn’t need the big city to do it in. He’s confident but won’t let his ego interfere with the success of the team. Just a levelheaded kid with a desire to be great, and would have one of the best playmaking point guards alongside him to help maximize his talent.

These two are the most polarizing and often mentioned names amongst NBA draft circles when looking at the top two in the class. If the comments made by Mann come to be true, the Pacers would be better off drafting the uber talented 6-9 forward, Dybantsa, than drafting a 6-6 elite shooting guard who would rather be “the guy” than a guy.

You can follow me on X @AlexGoldenNBA and listen to my daily podcast, Setting The Pace, wherever you get your podcasts.

Source link

Indiana

Mother demands justice after woman killed in wrong-way crash on I-65 in Northwest Indiana

Published

1 day ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Mother demands justice after woman killed in wrong-way crash on I-65 in Northwest Indiana

HOBART, Ind. (WLS) — A wrong-way crash left one woman dead and two others seriously injured in Northwest Indiana earlier this week, police said.

The mother of the 20-year-old who was killed spoke exclusively with ABC7 Chicago as she is demanding justice.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

Just before 2 a.m. Saturday, the Hobart Fire Department responded to the horrific crash on Interstate 65 involving two vehicles, north of 61st Avenue near Merrillville, Indiana.

Rylee Hanson, 20, was killed in what investigators says was a head-on collision with a wrong-way vehicle in the northbound lanes.

“I had Rylee when I was 20 and she made me who I am,” mother Karen Hanson said. “She made me want to be a better person and she made me strive, to reach goals, so I could set examples for kids… She was half of my life. I don’t know how to be me without her.”

Her family says Rylee was a ray of light who graduated from Kankakee Valley High School in Demotte, Indiana where she earned her EMT certification from Ivy Tech Community College. She was headed to criminology studies at Indiana University.

Her parents are appalled nobody has been charged in the crash.

“We want to see change with how drinking is handled,” Karen Hanson said. “There’s gotta be a better way for how people drink or get served or more punishment for impaired drivers out on the road where they’re not getting so many chances.”

Troopers said they believed that the driver of the car going the wrong way was impaired at the time.

“We are going to make her as proud as she made us,” Karen Hanson said. “Because she did… there are no words to tell you about the pain. It is indescribable.”

The investigation is still ongoing. Anyone with footage of the crash, or of the vehicles prior to the crash, has been asked to contact Indiana State Police.

Source link