Indiana University Women’s Basketball Signee Maya Makalusky named 2025 Indiana Miss Basketball Indiana recruit Maya Makalusky was honored as the state of Indiana Miss Basketball on Wednesday. Makalusky, who committed to Indiana in 2023, is from Fishers, Ind. and has been a standout player at Hamilton Southeastern High School. The Miss Basketball Award is voted on by state of Indiana media and coaches. According to the Indianapolis Star, who sponsor the award, Makalusky received 131 votes. She out-distanced Lawrence Central’s Jaylah Lampley, who had 80 votes. Makalusky averaged 22.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.8 steals as a senior at Hamilton Southeastern. The Royals finished 27-1 and lost to Warsaw in the championship game of the Class 4A Frankfort Semi state.
Makalusky is the first Indiana Miss Basketball recruited straight out of high school since Jori Allen in 2019. Allen starred at Bedford North Lawrence in high school. She transferred to DePaul after playing one season for the Hoosiers. Allen is not the last Miss Basketball to play for Indiana, however. Sydney Parrish, who also played at Hamilton Southeastern, won Miss Basketball in 2020. Parrish originally committed to Oregon and played two seasons for the Ducks before she transferred to Indiana in 2022. Other former Miss Basketball winners who played for Indiana include Ali Patberg (2015, Columbus North), Marla Inman (1992, Bedford North Lawrence) and Lori Meinedring (1987, Fort Wayne Northrop). Indiana opens the 2025 NCAA Tournament at 1:30 p.m. on Friday against Utah at South Carolina’s Colonial Life Arena.
Indiana University Men’s Basketball Junior Malik Reneau to enter the Transfer Portal Indiana forward Malik Reneau will enter the transfer portal, according to Joe Tipton. An All-Big Ten honorable mention selection last season, the 6-foot-9 Reneau averaged 13.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and two assists in 23.2 minutes per game. Over 94 career games for the Hoosiers, Reneau averaged 11.4 points, five rebounds and 1.8 assists in 22.1 minutes per game. Reneau has one season of eligibility remaining.
Indiana University 2025 Men’s Basketball Commit Harun Zrno has Decommitted from the Program Bosnian shooting guard Harun Zrno has reopened his recruitment, On3’s Joe Tipton reported on Wednesday. Tipton reported on X Zrno will continue to consider IU going forward. A recommitment by Zrno will require mutual interest from him and new IU head coach Darian DeVries. The 6-foot-7 Zrno took a visit to Indiana in January and committed later that same month. But his commitment came just a couple weeks prior to the announcement of Mike Woodson’s planned end of season retirement. He also visited Wisconsin, Creighton and Virginia in January during a two-week stay in the United States. Indiana is now down to one commit in the 2025 class, Montverde Academy’s 4-star forward Trent Sisley. DeVries had three class of 2025 signees at West Virginia before he left for IU.
Indiana University Softball beats Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana got back to its winning ways on Tuesday night as the team won at Notre Dame, 3-2, at Melissa Cook Stadium. The Hoosiers led 2-0 through the majority of the game before Notre Dame tied it at 2-2 in the fifth inning. Avery Parker broke the tie in the top of the seventh with a first-pitch home run over the right field wall for the go-ahead run. With the win, Indiana’s season record now stands at 20-7. Indiana scored right off the bat, as Taylor Minnick and Melina Wilkison executed a double steal with Minnick taking second and Wilkison coming home to score. The Hoosiers extended the lead in the top of the second inning when Wilkison reached on a fielder’s choice and the Irish made an error at third, allowing Aly VanBrandt to get home and make it a 2-0 game.
Notre Dame threatened in the bottom of the third with two runners on and Rachel Allen up to bat. Allen hit a ball to deep left field, but Minnick was there to make the catch at the wall to keep Indiana in front, 2-0 and get the team out of the inning. Notre Dame got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Jane Kronenberger scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-1. The Irish tied it up on another wild pitch when Avery Houlihan came home in the bottom of the fifth. Avery Parker broke the tie in the top of the seventh on the first pitch of her at bat and the inning as she crushed a ball over the right field wall to push Indiana to a 3-2 advantage. Parker’s home run was her eighth of the season. Indiana has defeated Notre Dame in back-to-back years now. The Hoosiers won 5-3 in Bloomington in 2024. Copeland threw five strikeouts in five innings of work in her fifth win of the season. VanBrandt went 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored. Indiana will return to Big Ten play and to Bloomington this weekend when it hosts Penn State for a home series at Andy Mohr Field from Friday to Sunday.
Indiana University Baseball handles In-State Rival Evansville at Bart Kaufman Field Brilliant bullpen work and big home runs helped the Indiana Baseball team (12-9, 4-2 B1G) overcome a slow offensive day on Tuesday evening at Bart Kaufman Field. IU got home runs in the seventh and eighth innings to finish off a 7-4 midweek win over Evansville. After Evansville came back to tie the game, junior outfielder Devin Taylor immediately responded in the home half of the seventh inning. He hit a solo home run to the opposite field on a pitch that tailed away from him across the plate. That gave IU the lead but freshman third baseman Cooper Malamazian put the game to bed in the eighth with a 414-foot, two-run blast. Redshirt junior pitcher Pete Haas (SV, 1) continued to impress in his relief role. He racked up four strikeouts by peppering change ups past the Evansville hitters. He’s the third IU pitcher to record a save this season. Redshirt junior left-handed pitcher Grant Holderfield (W, 1-0) did a great job of inducing weak contact in his two innings of work.
Taylor and junior shortstop Tyler Cerny combined for five of the seven IU hits. Cerny continued to show brilliance in the field. His over-the-head diving catch in shallow center field kept runs off the board and preserved the IU lead in the sixth inning. After earning the No. 2 play on SportsCenter this past weekend, he should find himself among the top-10 plays in sports again on Tuesday evening. IU won its fifth-straight game on Tuesday, its longest winning streak since putting together six-straight victories in February of 2024. The Hoosiers will get a stiff test this weekend as they head to Los Angeles to face Big Ten newcomers UCLA. After the west coast swing, IU will play its next nine games at Bart Kaufman Field.
Barton’s Breakout Fuels the Taylor Trojans Past the Huntington Foresters in Back-and-Forth Softball Battle Delaney Barton delivered her best game of the season to lead Taylor to a 9-7 victory over Huntington after a walk-off loss in the opener on Tuesday. Barton came up big in the nightcap of the twin-billing, rocketing three hits and driving in four runs, including the tiebreaker in the top of the seventh. Huntington (12-8, 1-5 CL) took an early 1-0 lead before Livie Lehmann drove in Emri Agre in the third to level the score at one apiece. Barton delivered a solo home run to give Taylor its first lead of the day and added another run later in the inning before the foresters tied it up in the bottom half of the inning. The junior backstop drove in a pair of runs in the fifth with a double to push the lead to 6-3 and give TU the momentum late in the contest. The home squad was unfazed and scored three unanswered runs in the next two frames to tie it up again. Heading into the seventh level at six, Lehmann laced her 54th career double to tie the program record to lead the inning off. Kaylee Larkin followed with a walk, and Barton ripped her third hit of the game and drove in the decisive run to give Tayor the final lead of the night. Two more insurance runs crossed the plate to give TU some breathing room, which was needed as Huntington scored a run in the bottom of the seventh before Claire Cullen shut the door and earned her seventh win of the season.
Missed opportunities in the opener proved costly, as a late comeback was thwarted by a walk-off double in the seventh. The Trojans continued their terrific trend of scoring in the first, with Lehmann driving in Madisyn Standridge after she singled and scored. After that, they loaded the bases with one out, but a pair of strikeouts left a trio of Trojans stranded. Cullen came in relief after trailing 4-1 through three innings and shut down the Foresters for the next three innings to keep TU within striking distance. A pair of pinch hitters reached base to begin the top of the seventh, and Jayci Kitchen followed with an RBI double, and the tying run was now in scoring position with nobody out. An RBI groundout preceded a line-drive single by Standridge to knot the game at four going into the bottom of the seventh. Unfortunately, the Foresters scored quickly, with the leadoff batter reaching on a walk and stealing second and scoring on a double one batter later. Taylor (14-6, 5-3 CL) continues its busy week on the road with two games against Grace (4-8, 0-6 CL) on Friday, March 21, in Winona Lake, Indiana, with first pitch set for 3:00 pm.