Indiana Women’s Basketball Remains Undefeated With 67-50 Win Over Butler

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana girls’s basketball took care of enterprise on Wednesday afternoon, defeating the Butler Bulldogs 67-50.

Mackenzie Holmes scored the Hoosiers’ first 5 factors of the sport, signaling one other dominant afternoon. Butler was unable to cease Holmes from catching the ball deep within the paint, and he or she made the Bulldogs pay with 21 factors. Holmes shot an environment friendly 8-for-12 from the sector, together with 4-for-4 from the free throw line. 

Indiana coach Teri Moren thought Holmes did a very good job of being affected person and kicking the ball out when the Butler double-team got here. As the sport went on, Moren and the Hoosiers seen Butler’s reluctancy to double-team Holmes a second time in the identical possession, which led to simple seems by way of one-on-one protection.

Holmes 17 first-half factors helped Indiana construct a 17-point halftime lead regardless of moments of sloppiness. The Hoosiers turned the ball over 16 instances, their third-highest complete of the season behind 18 turnovers towards Bowling Inexperienced on Nov. 17 and 17 towards Penn State on Dec. 8. Moren thought Indiana might have constructed a better halftime led if not for these turnovers.

“The video games earlier than Christmas break are all the time fascinating,” Moren stated. “Manner too many turnovers, simply careless. At instances I believed we had been in a rush. Perhaps we had been in a rush to get residence and open presents.”

Butler got here out of the halftime locker room hungry for a comeback, happening an 11-4 run to start out the third quarter. The Bulldogs trimmed Indiana’s result in 10 factors for the primary time because the 7:10 mark of the second quarter. However Indiana freshman Lexus Bargesser jumped off the bench with much-needed vitality, scoring the sport’s subsequent 5 factors to cease the Butler run. Holmes added a pair of layups and Chloe Moore-McNeil scored with a minute left to cap off an 11-2 Indiana run.

Moren believes Bargesser is a freshman with loads of upside, and he or she was joyful together with her manufacturing off the bench on Wednesday. 

“I feel what helps us finest is after we actually push the ground,” Bargesser stated. “Once we’re wanting up the ground, attempting to get run-outs, attempting to get these simpler factors to get us going once more.”

And from that time on, Indiana cruised to its twelfth win of the season. Regardless of dropping star guard Grace Berger to a knee harm on Nov. 25, the No. 4 Hoosiers stay undefeated. With out Berger, Moren stated every participant is required to perform a little bit extra, however she’s been general happy with Indiana’s response to the harm.

“I am not going to mislead you,” Moren stated. “We’re prepared for Grace to be again.”

Following Holmes’ lead, freshman Yarden Garzon scored 13 factors on 4-for-11 taking pictures, Sydney Parrish added 10, Sara Scalia contributed 9 and Bargesser completed with eight factors, six rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.

Subsequent up for Indiana is a Dec. 29 highway journey to Michigan State for a 3 p.m. ET tipoff. It is shaping as much as be one other spectacular season for Moren and the Hoosiers, who’ve aspirations for a deep run within the NCAA Match. For Moren, who attended Seymour Excessive Faculty in Indiana, a part of her has all the time wished to guide the Indiana girls’s basketball program to relevancy.

“I all the time felt like if they’d the proper individual right here,” Moren stated. “This place might turn out to be particular.”