Indiana came back with a vengeance this evening to dismantle Penn State in front of a home crowd at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The final score was 70-40, and all 5 IU starters finished with double digit points, including Senior Guard Nicole Cardaño-Hillary, who has recently struggled offensively, scoring just 2 collective points over the previous 2 games.
Cardaño-Hillary was on fire tonight, scoring 14, including 3-6 from beyond the arc. Those perimeter points provided her with the milestone of more than 200 career made 3-pointers (202). She added 7 rebounds and 5 assists during the evening, although her stats don’t tell the story of the physical play she endured to achieve these stats. Cardaño-Hillary was resilient, bouncing back from a number of times getting knocked in the head by her PSU counterparts. Her spirited defensive play caused a number of Penn State turnovers, resulting in several fast-break points.
When asked about how it feels to get back into offensive productivity, Cardaño-Hillary replied, “Feels great! I kept getting awesome passes from my teammates and everything was clicking.” She had a huge smile on her face when she confidently added, “This is a great way to start off the beginning of conference play.”
There were a lot of smiles to go around, and Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren had the closest look to a game-day smile that she has donned in quite a while when she stated, “Great bounce back game,” during the post -game press conference.
Coach Moren was happy to see the baskets fall for her Hoosiers, and was grateful for the win, although she has already established that this week’s practice will address turnovers. IU turned the ball over 18 times against Penn State, just 6 less than the 24 they committed last week in their loss to #2 NC State.
“Want to be under 11 [turnovers per game].” said Coach Moren. “We have to figure out how to fix that.” The goal for this year’s team is to average 80 points per game, she said, “could’ve [gotten there tonight] if we had done a better job at protecting the ball.”
Additionally, Coach Moren identified more effort being required on the transition offense. She mentioned everyone on the team being guilty of not consistently getting downcourt quickly enough on the fast break. The Hoosiers had 30 Defensive Rebounds and 9 steals against the Lady Lions, but appeared a bit rusty converting to offense. This week, she plans to reinforce the commitment to sprinting down the court in what she describes the “get it and go.”
The Hoosiers looked to be the team their fans have believed they are this entire season, despite some challenging losses. But let’s be honest, even while shooting horribly, IU has remained competitive until the end of each game this year. Coach Moren explained that while there are some serious goals for the team this year, that a lot of this is new. “We did a lot of firsts last year,” Coach referencing the Elite 8 accomplishment and high national ranking. “We [are still] learning to manage the expectations. We don’t have to be anything extraordinary of what we are.”
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from tonight’s win is the confidence demonstrated by the Hoosiers after a rough trio of games. The hunger to bounce back and play as a team was evident in tonight’s game, and not many can doubt that these women possess the confidence that they can play with anybody in this league.
Forward Mackenzie Holmes scored 16 and had 6 rebounds; Guard Ali Patberg scored 15; Cardano-Hillary scored 14; Forward Aleksa Gulbe scored 11; and, All American Guard Grace Berger scored 10 points. Mackenna Marisa scored 21 and added 5 rebounds to lead the Lady Lions. Next up, #10 Indiana hosts Fairfield on Thursday evening at 7pm.
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