Today’s Local Sports Headlines are brought to us by . . .
Indiana Women’s Basketball Opens Big Ten Play Hosting Penn State
After a tough loss at home to 2nd ranked NC State in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge last Thursday Night. 6th ranked Indiana Women’s Basketball is back in action tonight at 6pm when they host Penn State inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall; the game televised on the Big Ten Network. This will be the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams, and the earliest league game in program history. The Hoosiers will be with without graduate transfer Caitlin Hose after she announced Sunday, she was leaving the team and ending her college basketball career. Hose 5-10 from Hazel Green, Alabama transferred from Georgia in the off season, Hose played in played 4 games for a total of 20 minutes she took 1 three-point field goal and had one foul. Hose will remain in school to pursue her Master’s Degree.
Indiana’s starting five is averaging double figures with Mackenzie Holmes leading the way at 16.6 followed by Grace Berger and Ali Patberg both scoring 13.3 points per game. Nicole Cardano-Hillary is scoring 10.3 points and will look to bounce back after 0-10 from the field performance against NC State. Aleska Gulbe is averaging 10.1 points per game. The Hoosiers averaged 70 points per game and hold their opponents to 59 per game. The Hoosiers are 5-2 with a win over 13th ranked Kentucky and a loss to 7th ranked and defending national champion Stanford. The Hoosiers have scored 490 points total and 455 of those points from come the starting five.
Bench play has become an issue for the Hoosiers. Kiandra Browne has played 93 minutes and scored 21 points. Chloe Moore McNeil has played 88 minutes and scored 19 points, Kaitlin Peterson 10 minutes and scored 4 points. Grace Waggoner has played 17 minutes, Arielle Wisne 3 minutes, Mona Zaric 2 minutes. and Keyarah Berry 1 minute and have yet to score in a game this season.
Penn State is 4-4 on the season under 3rd year coach Carolyn Kieger who has a 20-42 record. She is 119-106 in 8 seasons as college head coach with a stop at her alma mater Marquette from 2014-19 before coming to Penn State. The Lady Lions are a team that loves to shoot the ball as they shoot 46 percent from the field this season and average 79 points per game. Junior Makenna Marisa leads the team at 21.4 points per game. Marisa had the first triple double at Penn State since the Lady Lions joined the Big Ten Conference in 1991, She scored 30 points, 11 assists and 10 steals in a November 16 home game against Delaware State. Sophomore Ali Brigham is averaging 13.0 points game while Nyia Beverly is just under 10 points per game at 9.9. The Lady Lions are in a middle of a three-game losing streak but this is team that has a majority of their team back including Big Ten Sixth Woman player of the year Maddie Burke who has struggled so far this season averaging 4.0 per game but she can be deadly from beyond the arc when she is starting to knock down the three-point shot.
Penn State leads the all-time series 33-17. Indiana beat the Lady Lions 85-64 in State College on January 7th and 90-65 in Bloomington on February 10th. The Hoosiers have won the last four and eight of the last 9 in the series. The Last Penn State win came on January 3, 2018 77-74 in State College. The Lady Lions have not won in Bloomington since a 71-63 victory on February 13, 2014.
Indiana Men’s Basketball Beats Nebraska in Big Ten Opener
Indiana Men’s Basketball beat Nebraska 68-55 in the Big Ten Conference Opener both teams Saturday afternoon inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers were off to a slow start down by 10 points until the 11-minute mark of the first half. The Hoosiers led 26-22 at half using a 22-8 run after being down 14-4 to start the game. The Hoosiers outscored the Huskers 42-33 in the 2nd half.
Trayce Jackson Davis led the Hoosiers with 14 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals. Race Thompson had 11 points and 11 rebounds for his second straight double-double. Tamar Bates scored 13 points off the bench and knocked down 3 three pointers. Parker Stewart scored 9 points all on three pointers. The Hoosiers were 23-57 from the field for 40 percent, 8-22 from three-point range for 36 percent and 14-17 from the free throw line for 82.4 percent. The Hoosiers hit their first 11 free throws before Race Thompson missed one with 1:53 to go and The Hoosiers did not get to the line in the first half. Indiana pulled down 41 rebounds, 10 assists, 7 steals, 5 blocks and 15 turnovers.
Nebraska was led by Alonzo Verge Jr with 15 points. Bryce McGowens and Derrick Walker who both average double figures were held to 8 points apiece. The Huskers were 23-61 from the field for 37 percent, 5-22 from the three-point range for 22 percent, and 4-5 from the foul line for 80 percent. Nebraska pulled down 32 rebounds, 9 assists, 9 steals, 1 block and 14 turnovers. Nebraska is 5-4 and 0-1 in the Big Ten. Nebraska Host Michigan on Tuesday Night at 7 PM on ESPN2.
Indiana is 7-1 and 1-0 in the Big Ten under Mike Woodson and will travel to Wisconsin Wednesday Night for 7 PM tipoff against the Badgers. Wisconsin is 7-1 on the season and on 5 game winning streak after 89-76 win over Marquette Saturday Afternoon in Madison. This will be the Badgers Big Ten Opener and Indiana has struggled in Madison losing 18 games in a row and has not won there since January 25, 1998 when the Hoosiers won 69-59.
Indianapolis Colts Shut Out Houston Texans 31-0
The Indianapolis Colts will go into the bye week with 31-0 shutout road win over the Houston Texans Sunday Afternoon. The Colts dominated the game and set the tone when Houston Quarterback Tyrod Taylor was picked off by Kenny Moore on the first play of the game. Jonathan Taylor scored on a 1-yard run with 11:29 to go in the first quarter to make it 7-0 and the Colts never looked back. Taylor added his second touchdown of the day on a 3-yard run with 9;47 to go in the 3rd quarter. This was the 10th straight game that Taylor has scored a touchdown becoming the third Indianapolis Colt to do so. Taylor finished the game with 143 yards on 32 carries and had scored 16 times this season tying the franchise record set by Lenny Moore in 1964.
Carson Wentz was 16-22 passing for 158 yards and 1 touchdown pass. Michael Pittman Jr caught 6 receptions for 77 yards, Ashton Dulin caught a 2-yard pass from Wentz. Deon Jackson scored on a rushing touchdown in the final minutes of the game and Michael Badgley hit a 23-yard field goal to complete the Colts scoring.
Texans quarterback Tyrod Taylor was 5-13 passing for 45 yards and threw an interception and was knocked out the game with Injury. Davis Mills was 6-14 for 49 yards. The Texans had 84 yards rushing on 19 carries and caught 11 passes for 94 yards. Houston is 2-10 and 1-5 at home, losing 9 of the last 10 games. Indianapolis outscored Houston 62-3 in the two meetings. The Colts are 7-6 on the season and 4-2 on the road and will be off until December 18th when they Host the New England Patriots in Saturday Night primetime matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Ball State Volleyball beats Michigan Falls to Louisville in NCAA Tournament
The Ball State Cardinals Volleyball Team beat Michigan 3-2 in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament in Louisville Kentucky Friday Afternoon. The Cardinals lost to Top Seed Louisville 3-0 in the second round Saturday Night. Ball State ended the year at 30-4 and made the second round of the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in school history with the other two appearances in the second round coming in 1994 and 1995.
Ball State beat Michigan in a thrilling five set match 25-17, 22-25, 25-18, 25-27, and 15-8. Leading the way for the explosive Ball State offense, which hit .237 for the night, was junior middle Marie Plitt who smashed a career-high 20 kills and led all players with a .515 (20-3-33) attack percentage. In all, four Cardinals reached double figure kills to help the Cardinals tie the longest winning streak in program history. Graduate student outside hitter Jaclyn Bulman was second on the squad with 15 kills, while junior middle Lauren Gilliland and junior opposite Natalie Mitchem added 11 apiece. Gilliland, who also tallied a team-high five total blocks, would provide the biggest blast of the night by ending the match and setting off the Ball State victory celebration.
As strong as BSU’s offense was, the defense was just as good, limiting the nation’s 38th-ranked offense to a .158 (51-25-165) hitting mark. The Wolverines (18-12) entered the night hitting .254 as a team. The Michigan attack was paced by Paige Jones who tallied a team-best 16 kills. Jess Mruzik was second on the squad with 13, while Hannah Grant tied for match-high honors with 20 digs. The Wolverines were able to out-block (11 to 8) and out-ace (10 to 5) the Cardinals, but BSU’s tenacious defense and solid offense countered nearly every Michigan blow in the match.
The Cardinals did not shy away against the number 1 overall seed in Louisville. Ball State lost 29-27, 25-11, and 25-19. Louisville had three early set-points, pulling ahead 24-21, but Ball State would not go down quietly, starting with a block from junior middle Marie Plitt and freshman setter Megan Wielonski. That pressure forced an attack error on the next rally, while Plitt followed with a kill after a UofL timeout to tie the score at 24. Louisville scored the next point, for its fourth set point, but graduate student outside attacker Jaclyn Bulmahn found the L&N Arena floor on the next play to even the score. Then, an UofL attack error gave BSU a chance to close out the set ahead 26-25. BSU could not capitalize on the opportunity, or on another at 27-26, and Louisville went on to win the set at 29-27.
Unfortunately, Ball State could not quite capture the opening-set magic the rest of the night as Louisville won the next two frames to snap BSU’s winning streak at a program-record tying 20 matches. Despite the season-ending loss, Ball State finished the year with 30 wins for just the fourth time in program history and set a program record with a .882 (30-4) winning percentage. It was a solid year for the Cardinals, who look to return all but three players from this season’s squad for Head Coach Kelli Miller-Phillips who took the Cardinals to their second NCAA Tournament Appearance with her first coming in 2019. Ball State is 3-10 all time in the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.
For more local news . . .
Check out our archived episodes of What’s Happenin’ and Talkin’ Sports with Nick Jenkinson here!