Indiana
Strong third quarter pushes Indiana past Utah 76-68 in NCAA tournament opener
COLUMBIA, S.C. – As expected, the first quarter of Friday’s NCAA tournament game between Indiana and Utah was a feeling-out process for two evenly matched teams.
The Hoosiers and Utes traded buckets, the lead changed hands several times and the opening 10 minutes ended in a 17-17 tie.
After IU junior Yarden Garzon started the second quarter with a 3-pointer, the Hoosiers went scoreless for over two and a half minutes. A Karoline Striplin jump shot stopped the bleeding momentarily, but Indiana’s offense disappeared for nearly four minutes.
Teri Moren and her staff have seen this before. This season, Indiana has continuously struggled in the second quarter, and with it being win or go home the rest of the way, everyone knew something had to change.
Fortunately for the Hoosiers, Utah only scored once during the lengthy drought and never pushed its lead beyond six points. Indiana went into the media timeout at the 4:18 mark of the second quarter and the message was simple: don’t let the game slip away.
“We got together in a huddle and said we need to bring it back,” Shay Ciezki said postgame. “We need to tie this game up going into halftime so we have momentum to come out. And that’s what we did.”
After trailing 28-22, a switch was flipped for IU, allowing the Hoosiers to tie the game at 31 by halftime.
The momentum continued into the second half as the No. 8 seed Hoosiers advanced to the round of 32 with a 76-68 win against the Utes at Colonial Life Arena in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
With 3-point shooting being the strength of both teams, the thought was that perimeter shooting would determine the outcome of Friday’s matchup. But Indiana’s efficiency inside the arc proved to be the difference.
The Hoosiers were just 5-for-17 (29.4 percent) from the perimeter, but shot a sizzling 24-for-33 on 2s, good for 72.7 percent. Indiana was 10-for-12 in the third quarter and outscored the Utes 27-16. The Hoosiers led 58-47 after 30 minutes.
“I think they came out aggressive,” Utah’s Kennady McQueen said. “I think they were getting to the paint a little bit more than we were, just being the more aggressive team there for a bit in the third quarter.”
Ciezki and Garzon were terrific in that third quarter, commanding the game with transition offense. Garzon led Indiana in scoring with 17 points and Ciezki added 16.
Three other Hoosiers finished with double figures, including Chloe Moore-McNeil, who finished with 12 points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals.
The frontcourt for Indiana was also impactful as Karoline Striplin shot 5-for-10 from the field for 10 points. Lilly Meister scored 11 points on 15 minutes of play, the most she’s scored since Dec. 28. Meister had eight points in the first quarter.
“You know, pleased with — all the kids that got in and played minutes for us,” Moren said. “You can look at all the kids that five of them were in double-digit scoring, but then I think about Henna (Sandvik) coming in, and we’re down a four player, and we can move her around, and we can move Yarden around. And then Lilly Meister coming in, and she and Strip did such a great job of being there for one another. When Strip went out, Lilly impacted the game; and then when Lilly went out, Strip did the same.”
On an afternoon in which shots weren’t falling from the perimeter, Indiana’s ability to score in the paint and get to the free-throw line was pivotal.
The Hoosiers scored 30 points in the paint and went 13-for-15 from the stripe.
“They do a tremendous job of executing,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said. “And by that, I mean they’re patient. They wait for screens. They set them up. They use them. And they really caused us to have some mishaps on the defensive end, and that’s the difference of the game.”
The Utes made their push in the fourth quarter, scoring 21 points to Indiana’s 18, but the lead built in the third quarter was too much overcome.
The win, Indiana’s 20th of the season, improved Moren’s record to 7-0 in the opening round of the NCAA tournament during her IU tenure.
The focus will now shift to Sunday afternoon as the Hoosiers will face South Carolina, last season’s national champion. The Gamecocks ended IU’s 2023-24 season last March in the Sweet Sixteen in Albany, New York.
“You know, just, again, a great amount of respect for them,” Moren said. “You know, I can tell you this from a year ago and just knowing our players. Whoever is ahead of us, we will have — because I have a great staff, we will have a really great scouting report. We will be prepared.”
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
Category: Women’s Basketball
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INDIANAPOLIS — Sophie Cunningham wants to emphasize she’s perfectly happy with the Indiana Fever. She just wishes she could be locked down longer.
Cunningham, who signed a one-year, $665,000 deal with the Indiana Fever for 2026, said on her podcast, “Show Me Something,” on Tuesday night that she was frustrated with the free agency process in the condensed offseason.
She shook her head vehemently when her co-host West Wilson asked if the contract was better than she thought it would be, then said in part, “It’s tough because I came off an injury … I’m not even going to lie to you, that’s a little, kind of, frustrating.”
Fans on social media largely took that as she did not get interest from other teams, she didn’t want to return to the Fever, or she was unhappy with the salary she got.
She shut those thoughts down on social media Monday night, then expounded on her frustrations with local media at Fever training camp on Tuesday morning.
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“I think Twitter kind of blew up last night about a comment I made on my podcast. But that wasn’t what I meant at all,” Cunningham said. “I think if you listen to the full clip, you really understand that I just wanted to be somewhere for more than one year. I’m almost 30 years old. I want to have a home. I want to get established. And I would love to get established in a place like Indiana.”
The Fever prioritized as much financial flexibility as possible this offseason because of the new EPIC clause, which allows both Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark to renegotiate their fourth-year salaries up to the max with an extension. Boston’s salary was bumped to $1 million in 2025, and she will make the supermax from 2027-29. Clark is eligible to negotiate up to the max in 2027, and both Clark and Boston could be making the supermax starting in 2028.
Only Lexie Hull and Monique Billings got major multi-year deals with the Fever out of free agency. Hull signed for $765,000 in 2026 and $803,250 in 2027, per Her Hoop Stats, while Billings got $800,000 for both 2026 and 2027. Damiris Dantas is the only other player that got a multi-year deal out of free agency, but that was for the minimum cap hit of $277,500.
Kelsey Mitchell signed a one-year, $1.4 million supermax, Cunningham returned on a one-year deal, and Myisha Hines-Allen and Tyasha Harris each signed one-year deals.
Cunningham added that she got multi-year offers from other teams, but chose to stay with Indiana on a one-year deal.
She wanted to return to Indiana, she said, because of friendships she created with her teammates and the potential they showed, even after six separate season-ending injuries on the roster. She is also closer to her hometown of Columbia, Missouri.
“When you find a group of girls who really make you fall in love with basketball games and you enjoy it, you enjoy them, not only on the court, but off the court, like, you want to hold on to that,” Cunningham said. “ … it was never about the money, it was just about the years, because I wanted to be with them. And God forbid a girl loves her teammates, you know what I mean?”
Cunningham is also coming off a major knee injury after she tore her MCL in August 2025. She was ruled out for the rest of the 2025 season and got surgery in Indianapolis, then had a six-month rehab process before she was cleared in February.
Since then, she has been ramping back up as much as possible, including playing one-on-one, three-on-three, plyometrics, and everything she does to get ready for a regular season.
Still, she said, she’ll need to actually play to get back into full basketball shape.
“Basketball shape is just different,” Cunningham said. “You can run as many suicides as you want, you can get your butt kicked however you want, but until you’re out here playing, you’re never fully going to be in game shape until you’re playing games.”
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at chloe.peterson@indystar.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar TV: Fever for in-depth analysis, behind-the-scenes coverage and more.
CLOVERDALE, Ind. (WKRC) – Authorities in Indiana found a semi trailer loaded up with hundreds of pounds of suspected cocaine.
According to a statement issued by the Indiana State Police (ISP), 27-year-old Harmandeep Singh of Bakersfield, California was taken into custody after nearly 400 pounds of suspected cocaine were reportedly found in the trailer of a commercial truck.
Per the statement, an ISP trooper seized the suspected cocaine during a traffic stop on Interstate 70 in Putnam County, authorities said.
The stop occurred Tuesday morning near the 37-mile marker, just east of Cloverdale, after a commercial motor vehicle was observed exceeding the posted speed limit.
Police said Singh displayed several indicators of possible criminal activity during the encounter. After obtaining consent to search the vehicle, troopers discovered multiple duffel bags and cardboard boxes in the trailer containing approximately 392 pounds (178 kilograms) of suspected cocaine.
Authorities estimated the street value of the drugs at about $9 million.
Singh was taken into custody and taken to the Putnam County Jail, where he is being held on a $30,000 cash bond.
He faces the following preliminary charges, per the post:
- Possession of a narcotic drug
Formal charges will be determined by the Putnam County prosecutor.
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Indiana State Police said drug interdiction remains a priority, with troopers focusing on major highways to disrupt the flow of illegal narcotics into the state.
For many Hoosiers living in rural Indiana, accessing health care can mean driving 30 minutes or even an hour to see a doctor or reach the nearest hospital. As workforce shortages and financial pressures challenge rural hospitals across the country, ensuring access to care close to home has become one of the most important health-care issues facing our state.
About one in four Indiana residents live in a rural community, yet access to health-care services in many of these communities continues to shrink. Across the nation, rural hospitals and clinics report extremely thin operating margins and often say workforce shortages and rising costs make it difficult to sustain services such as primary care, maternity care and behavioral health.
When rural communities struggle to maintain health-care access, the impact doesn’t stay confined to small towns. It ripples across the entire health-care system, contributing to increases in chronic conditions, reduced preventative care for children, and worsening outcomes for the sickest patients.
Communities such as Greater Lafayette serve as a regional hub for care, with hospitals like IU Health Arnett caring for patients from surrounding counties across north-central and west-central Indiana. That role is something we are proud to fulfill. But when rural residents must travel long distances for care that should be available closer to home, it places increasing pressure on emergency departments, specialty clinics and inpatient services at larger regional hospitals.
In many cases, what might have been a routine appointment, preventive screening or early diagnosis in a local clinic becomes far more serious by the time a patient reaches a larger hospital. A missed screening can escalate into a medical emergency.
That reality makes strengthening rural health care more important than ever — not just for rural communities, but for the health of the entire state.
One of the most important steps we can take is investing in the next generation of health-care professionals who will care for these communities.
At IU Health, we are working directly with local schools and community partners to help build that workforce pipeline. Across the region, IU Health has partnered with the Greater Lafayette Career Academy and area school districts to introduce students to health-care careers earlier and provide hands-on learning opportunities that bring those careers to life.
Through these programs, students explore health-care pathways and earn certifications such as certified nursing assistant, medical assistant or emergency medical technician while still in high school. Many participate in job shadowing opportunities, clinical experiences and mentorship programs, giving them valuable exposure to the field before they graduate. In fact, since the first cohort in 2023, IU Health has extended job offers to more than 70 students.
The goal is simple but powerful: help students see that meaningful careers in health care exist in their own communities and create pathways that allow them to stay and serve those communities.
For rural health care, this approach is critical. Students who train and develop personal mentorship connections locally are far more likely to remain in the region after completing their education. By helping young people build skills and connections early, we can create a sustainable workforce that strengthens health-care access in both rural communities and regional centers, including Greater Lafayette.
Since launching the $200 million Community Impact Investment Fund in 2018, IU Health has invested more than $40 million in community grants supporting workforce development, education and school-based programs that build Indiana’s health-care talent pipeline. This includes funding for the Indiana Latino Institute, which placed Latino students in health-care internships, supported career pathways, and provided medical interpreter training and college coaching to communities across the state.
Our goal is to make Indiana one of the healthiest states in the nation, and this is one way we work toward that in partnership with our communities.
But workforce development is only part of the solution.
Strengthening rural health care will also require continued collaboration between health-care providers, educators, community leaders and policymakers. Expanding telehealth access, supporting rural hospitals and investing in primary care and behavioral health services are all critical steps toward ensuring patients can receive care close to home.
Greater Lafayette will always play an important role as a regional health-care center, providing specialized care and advanced services for patients across a broad region. But the long-term health of Indiana’s health-care system depends on maintaining strong local access points for care in rural communities.
When rural clinics and hospitals can provide preventive care, manage chronic conditions and connect patients with the services they need early, the entire system works better.
Patients receive care sooner, communities stay healthier and larger hospitals can focus on the complex cases they are designed to treat.
Healthy rural communities do not just benefit the towns where they are. They strengthen Indiana’s entire health-care system by ensuring that every Hoosier — no matter where they live — has access to the care and resources they need to live healthier lives.
When rural health care succeeds, all of Indiana benefits.
Gary Henriott is a lifelong resident of Lafayette and the retired CEO and Chairman of Henriott Group. He is the chair of the IU Health West Region board of directors and the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network, and president of Lafayette’s Board of Public Works and Safety.
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