Local Sports Headlines: December 23, 2021

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Indiana Men’s Basketball Improves to 10-2 With Win Over Northern Kentucky  
Indiana Men’s Basketball will hit the Christmas break with a 10-2 record after a 79-61 victory over Northern Kentucky Wednesday Night inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are 9-0 at home this season. Bloomington South Grad Anthony Leal got his first career start as a Hoosier. Leal played 21 minutes, scored 2 points, had 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 1 steal. Leal found out on Monday he was going to start “I didn’t tell my parents. I wanted it to be a surprise.” Leal said after the game. He is the first Bloomington native since Jordan Hulls in 2013 to start a game for IU. Leal was Mr. Basketball in 2020 while playing for Bloomington South. Parker Stewart who did not play the first half, played just 9 minutes and went 1-2 from three-point range, with 3 fouls and a turnover. It is unclear why Stewart did not play the first half and speculation is it was a coaches’ decision.  After the game Coach Woodson was asked in the post-game press conference why Stewart did not start. “It’s an in-house matter. I never address things that go on in our locker room.”

Indiana took the lead 19 seconds into the game and never looked back taking a 38-14 lead into the locker room. The 14 points by Northern Kentucky tied the fewest points allowed in the first half this season with the other coming against Louisiana. Northern Kentucky outscores the Hoosiers 47-41 in the second half and Coach Woodson was not pleased with the second half effort. “It wasn’t pretty, defensively we did everything right in the first half in terms of coverages and switches. It was totally the opposite in the second half, I made it known that can’t happen. We won’t win many games in the Big Ten doing that.” Woodson Said.

Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 21 points, pulled down 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. Race Thompson scored 14 points, pulled down 4 rebounds, 2 blocks, an assist and a steal. Tamar Bates who missed the Notre Dame game attend the funeral of a family member returned with 2 points, 2 assists and a turnover in 15 minutes of action. Rob Phinsese came off the bench to score 10 points pulled down 3 rebounds and a steal in 18 minutes of action. Indiana was 32-55 from the field for 58 percent, 5-15 from three-point range for 33 precent and 10-15 from the free throw line for 66.7 percent. The Hoosiers pulled down 38 rebounds, 20 assists, 6 steals, 5 blocks and committed 13 turnovers.

Northern Kentucky 4-7 was led by Treavon Faulkner with 22 points. Faulkner hit 4 three pointers all in the 2nd half with three of those in a row to get Northern Kentucky back in the game. The Norse did not have another player score more than 8 points. NKU was 21-59 from the field for 35 percent, 10-33 from three-point range for 30 percent and 9-12 from the line for 75 percent. The Norse pulled down 24 rebounds, 13 assists, 10 steals, 1 block and committed 10 turnovers.

This was the first ever meeting between the two programs. The Hoosiers will host UNC Asheville next Wednesday Night at 7pm. The Bulldogs who compete in the Big South Conference are 8-5 after a 114-54 rout of Milligan University Tuesday Night in Asheville, North Carolina.  

Indiana Women’s Basketball Host Southern Illinois
8th Ranked Indiana Women’s Basketball returns to action after unexpected time off when they host Southern Illinois this afternoon at 1pminside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers game with Wright State was canceled Tuesday Night due to a positive COVID-19 test within the Wright State program; the game will not be made up. Indiana is 9-2 coming into its final Non-Conference Game. Mackenzie Holmes is averaging a team high 18.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game. Grace Berger is averaging 14.5 points and 4.5 assists. Ali Patberg is averaging 12.2 points. Nicole Cardano-Hillary is averaging 10.8 points and 1.8 steals. Aleksa Gulbe rounds out the starting five at 10.3 points per game. The Hoosiers average 73 points per game and give up 58 points on defense.

Southern Illinois is 5-4 on the season. SIU is fresh off a 66-51 against Big Ten foe Illinois on Sunday. They are led by graduate student guard Abby Brockmeyer leads the way with 16.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game while reigning MVC Player of the Week graduate student guard Makenzie Silvey who averages 16.0 points per game. The Salukis are 2-4 away from home this season and average 65.9 points per outing. The Salukis have one Indiana native on the roster that is Tyranny Brown a 5-8 freshman guard from Heritage Christian in Indianapolis. Southern Illinois coached by Cindy Stein who is 120-129 in her 9th season at Southern Illinois and 420-335 overall in 25 seasons overall with stops at Emporia State, Missouri and Illinois Central College. Stein played at Illinois from 1981-83 after 2 years at Illinois Central College 1979-81. This will be the final season for Stein who plans to retire after the season.

Indiana leads the all-time series with Southern Illinois 12-3 and this is the first meeting between the two programs since December 16, 2006 when Indiana won 73-66 in Bloomington. Southern Illinois is located in Carbondale Illinois and competes in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Indiana Baseball Announces 2022 Schedule
A bevy of big-name non-conference opponents are followed by a loaded Big Ten schedule, as the Indiana baseball program announced its 2022 schedule this week. The Hoosiers will square off with five programs that were on the Road to Omaha in 2021, with College World Series qualifier Stanford, Arkansas, Indiana State, Nebraska and Michigan all making the NCAA Tournament field a season ago. Perineal postseason teams Clemson, Louisiana-Lafayette, Missouri State and Troy also dot the schedule.
 
The season begins with seven straight games away from home. A three-game series at Clemson (Feb. 18-20) kicks off the year, before a midweek contest at Miami (Ohio) on February 22. Then the Hoosiers head to Texas for the Round Rock Classic (February 25-27) at Dell Diamond. In Round Rock, IU will face 2019 College World Series qualifier Arkansas, Louisiana-Lafayette and 2021 CWS participant Stanford.  A midweek contest against the Redhawks on March 1 will open the home portion of the schedule, before a trip to Missouri State (March 4-6). Home games with Cincinnati (March 8) and Purdue Fort Wayne (March 9) come just before the final non-conference weekend road series at Troy (March 11-13).
 
After starting the season with 13 of 16 on the road, IU will play its next 12 at home, including the Big Ten opening series. A home contest with Kentucky (March 15) will be followed by a four-game set with Xavier (March 18-20). A visit from Indiana State on March 22 will be followed by back-to-back weekend home series. After hosting Evansville (March 25-27) for three games, Northwestern (April 1-3) comes to Bart Kaufman Field for the B1G opener. Most of April will be spent on the road, as trips to Purdue (April 9-10) and Rutgers (April 15-17) bookend a trip to Indiana State (March 12). A trip to the Queen City to take on Cincinnati (April 20) comes ahead of a home series with 2021 Big Ten champion Nebraska (April 22-24). Indiana returns to Victory Field for a tilt against Butler on April 26 and treks to Illinois State on April 27.
 
A home series with Illinois (April 29-May 1) is followed by a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to take on the Wolverines (May 6-8). After traveling to Louisville (May 10), the Hoosiers welcome Minnesota (May 13-15) for the final home weekend series of the season. A final home game versus Illinois State (May 17) comes before the final regular season weekend series at Iowa (May 19-21).  The Big Ten Tournament will run from May 25-29 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.

General admission season tickets are now on sale for the 2022 season at IUHoosiers.com or by calling the IU Athletics Ticket Office at 1-866-IUSPORTS (487-7678). Adult season ticket packages are $96 and youth ticket packages (ages 3-18) priced at $48. Purchasing season tickets saves $144 off the regular price, a 60 percent savings.  Children two and under are free at Bart Kaufman Field.  If you had 2020 season tickets you can renew on the iuhoosiers.com website  
 
Indiana University faculty/staff and students receive free admission with valid Crimson Card on game day.  Reserved seat season tickets are only available for those who had reserved seat season tickets in 2020.  If interested in reserved seats click the box during the ordering process. General admission single game tickets will be available in February.  Single-game pricing is $10 for adults, $5 for youth (ages 3-18) and $5 for groups of 25 or more. Family Packages are $40, and fans will receive four tickets and four food vouchers to be exchanged at the Bart Kaufman concession stand.  Family Packages must be purchased in advance of game day.
 

Five Indiana University Divers Qualify for FINA World Championships
Seven Indiana diving student-athletes captured a total of 15 medals last week (Dec. 13-18) at the 2021 USA Diving Winter National Championships inside IU’s home facility, Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center. Hoosier divers tallied three gold medals during the competition, as well as 18 top-10 finishes. As a result, five IU student-athletes qualified for the FINA World Championships, set to take place in Japan in May.
 
Graduate diver Kirsten Hayden highlighted the event Monday when she became USA Diving’s first Black female national champion, winning the Mixed Synchronized 3-Meter dive with fellow Hoosier and freshman Quinn Henninger with the performance, Hayden also became the first-ever Black U.S. diver to qualify for the FINA World Championships. In all, Hayden tallied three medals on the week, tying Olympian and senior Andrew Capobianco and freshman Carson Tyler for the most from a Hoosier at winter nationals. Henninger and sophomore Tarrin Gilliland also collected multiple medals, while sophomore Anne Fowler and signee Maxwell Weinrich each added to IU’s total. Gilliland captured a pair of gold medals, winning both the mixed and women’s synchronized platform events, with scores of 268.62 and 573.60, respectively.
 
Indiana swimming and diving will return to collegiate action on January 8, 2022, when it visits Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a Big Ten dual meet against the Michigan Wolverines.

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