“It’s Right here, it’s right now in front of us . . . we’re not waiting to get Purdue back on the map,” was the message first year Head Coach Katie Gearlds of the Purdue Boilermakers delivered during her post game conference. She went on to say that her group of players want to be the ones to see the change, and not for the transformation to take 4 to 5 years.
Although the Barn Burner Trophy will stay in Indiana for another year, Coach Gearlds needs to be proud of her team, as they gave it their all, and were a final-seconds free throw miss in regulation from knocking off the 6th nationally ranked Indiana Hoosiers. Indeed, Purdue is a strong Big Ten team in talent and drive.
An hour before game time, Indiana announced that they would, once again be without All-American Forward Mackenzie Holmes for the second game in a row, due to what is being simply called, “a knee injury.” While this was not much of a surprise to Hoosier fans, the announcement that Graduate Guard Nicole Cadano-Hillary would also be missing from eligibility due to “Health and Safety Protocol,” was a last-minute shock.
Two missing starters from the line-up would further deplete a bench which has been sparingly used so far this season. The Sophomore Power Forward Kiandra Browne would see her second career start, and Sophomore Guard Chloe Moore-McNeil would get her first call as a starter.
Indiana struggled throughout the first half and were challenged by a hungry Purdue squad on both sides of the ball. On defense, the Boilermakers played very tight, and set perimeter double team traps flawlessly, causing both chaos and Hoosier turnovers; Indiana went into the locker room at halftime trailing 32-27. The lone first half, consistent offensive light for IU came from Senior Forward Aleksa Gulbe, who was hot from inside and outside of the paint during the first 20 minutes of play.
Indiana was outplayed for a significant part of the game, but like we have seen before, they had the will to keep it close and stay in the game.
“Give our kids credit for their focus, they were relentless,” IU Head Coach Teri Moren said after the road win. “As I always say to them, as long as there’s time on the clock for us, we’re always going to be in the game. I have a group of people in that locker room who will just not quit.”
And relentless they were . . . with less than 3 minutes remaining in regular play, the Hoosiers found themselves down by 8 points, but remained intense on defense and patient on offense, protecting their possession and awaiting the right shots. Grace Berger would rise to the occasion, hitting clutch shots throughout the 4th quarter.
Even down by 4 with 32 seconds remaining, the Indiana Coaching Staff used their timeouts wisely, and the execution was impressive. With 18 seconds left, Graduate Guard Ali Patberg brought the game to within 1, nailing a 3-point shot with perfect form, switching the momentum to Indiana.
The ensuing inbound would be stolen at halfcourt by IU Junior Forward Grace Waggoner, and the Hoosiers would take a one-point lead on an 8-footer from Berger, with 8 seconds to go. Then, the Boilermakers would tie the game at 60 after hitting the tail end of a pair of free throws, to send the game into overtime.
The OT would be all Indiana, as they imposed their will in the added 5 minutes, securing their 9-game winning streak and the Barn Burner Trophy, with a 73-68 road victory. Coach Moren gave credit to Purdue for giving IU “All they could handle,” but in the end, IU and their resilience advance to 14-2 (6-0) while Purdue falls to 11-6 (2-4).
Berger led all, scoring 24 points, Gulbe 21 points, Patberg 10 points, Moore-McNeil 10 points (in her first start), and Browne 8 points.
Next up, Indiana hosts Michigan State University at 7pm on Wednesday evening.