Local Sports Headlines: February 10, 2022

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Indiana Women’s Basketball dominates Illinois
7th ranked Indiana Women’s Basketball dominated Illinois 93-61 Wednesday night at the State Farm Center in Champaign. Ali Patberg scored 21 of her game high 26 points in the first half. Aleska Gulbe added 18 points, Grace Berger added 13 and Katlin Peterson scored a career best 11 points off the bench. Chloe Moore-McNeil scored 9 points, Nicole Cardano-Hillary added 7 points, Kiandra Browne 6, Grace Waggoner 3 points, Arielle Wisne and Mona Zaric played but did not score. Indiana is 17-3 overall and 9-1 in the Big Ten.

Illinois falls to 6-13 and 1-7 in the Big Ten. The Fighting Illini were led in scoring with 14 points by Adalia McKenzie, Jayla Oden added 13 points. Indiana led 28-8 after the first quarter and 54-24 at halftime. The Hoosiers have won 13 in a row against the Fighting Illini keeping the longest active streak going for most consecutive wins against a conference opponent. The Hoosiers will host Michigan State Saturday afternoon at 3pm for the annual head to the hall game where all tickets will cost $1.

Northwestern beats shorthanded Indiana Men’s Basketball
Northwestern beat Indiana Men’s Basketball 59-51 late Tuesday night in Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston Illinois. It was announced before the game that Michael Durr, Xavier Johnson, Parker Stewart, Tamar Bates and Khristian Lander had been suspended for a violation of team rules leaving the Hoosiers with just 7 scholarship players available. With guard Rob Phinsee out with a foot injury and freshman center Logan Duncomb a season-long non-factor playing just six game and 14 total minutes. “I’m not here to mess around with guys who don’t want to do what’s asked of them, if they don’t, they’ve got to go.” Head Coach Mike Woodson said in post-game press conference. Let others settle for win-at-all-cost coaching. Woodson has a program to build, a championship to try to win and lessons to teach. Suspending five players was the season’s most painful lesson. He said there’s no guarantee this is just a one-game thing. “I’m very disappointed because I’m strictly about team,” Woodson said. “Those guys in the locker room know I’m very upset about it.”

Race Thompson scored 14 points to lead the Hoosiers, Trayce Jackson-Davis had a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds. Trey Galloway who was in the starting lineup scored 13 points. Miller Kopp scored three points and pulled down 6 rebounds in his return to Northwestern. Kopp played three seasons with the Wildcats before transferring to Indiana. Anthony Leal who got his second career start scored 5 points. Jordan Geronimo scored 3 points and walk on Nathan Childress played 3 minutes and did not score. Indiana is 16-7 overall and 7-6 in the Big Ten.

Northwestern was led in scoring by Boo Buie with 18 points and Chase Audige added 13 points. Northwestern improves to 12-10 overall and 5-8 in the Big Ten. Indiana led 30-26 at half and The Wildcats outscored the Hoosiers 33-21 in the second half.  The Hoosiers return to action Saturday Afternoon for a 3:30 pm matchup at Michigan State.

Indiana Football to host Illinois on Friday, September 2nd to open 2022 Season
Indiana will open the 2022 football season on Friday, September 2, against Illinois. It will mark the first Friday opener in Memorial Stadium history. The Hoosiers last kicked off a campaign on a Friday in 2005 at Central Michigan and last played on a Friday in 2018 at Minnesota. Here is the updated Indiana Football Schedule.
  
Sept. 2              Illinois
Sept. 10            Idaho
Sept. 17            Western Kentucky
Sept. 24            at Cincinnati
Oct. 1               at Nebraska
Oct. 8               Michigan
Oct. 15             Maryland
Oct. 22             at Rutgers
Oct. 29             Bye
Nov. 5              Penn State       
Nov. 12             at Ohio State
Nov. 19             at Michigan State
Nov. 26             Purdue
Dec. 3               Big Ten Championship Game

University Of Southern Indiana to join Ohio Valley Conference
The University of Southern Indiana has accepted an invitation to join the Ohio Valley Conference as its Division I partner as it was announced Wednesday Afternoon. The partnership will allow the school to move forward with its reclassification in the NCAA ahead of the June 1 deadline. Upon acceptance, the transition process will take four years to complete. Southern Indiana announced the move to Division 1 on Monday.  USI would begin competing in the Ohio Valley Conference at the start of the 2022-23 academic year and would leave the Great Lakes Valley Conference at the end of this academic year. Although USI may be eligible for conference championships during the transition period, it would not be eligible for NCAA championships.

USI joins OVC member institutions University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Eastern Illinois University, Morehead State University, Southeast Missouri State University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Tennessee State University, Tennessee Technological University and the University of Tennessee at Martin. USI is only the 23rd full-time member in the 74-year history of the Ohio Valley Conference. 

USI is a founding member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference and began competing in 1979 with a substantial history of athletic success including 188 NCAA Tournament appearances and 231 athletes earning All-American honors. USI has 10 NCAA II individual National Championships in Cross Country and Track & Field, and 16 NCAA II Regional Championships in Baseball, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Cross Country and Softball.  In 2018, USI won the NCAA II Softball National Championship, becoming the first softball team in Indiana to win a NCAA championship. In 2010, USI was the first GLVC member and university in the state of Indiana to win a national championship in baseball, repeating in 2014 to become the first NCAA II program to win multiple team titles. Men’s Basketball won the NCAA II National Championship in 1995. USI boasts a strong academic record as well with 228 Academic All-GLVC athletes in 2021-22 and 35 Academic All-America honors. Student athletes maintain an average GPA of 3.29 and are retained at a high percentage.

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