The 17th ranked Indiana Hoosiers returned home after a three-game road trip with a 72-34 win over the Stetson Hatters Sunday afternoon in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are 7-1 on the season and have won six in a row heading into a trip to Rutgers this coming Saturday afternoon for their Big Ten Conference Opener.
The game was the annual ALS Awareness game to honor Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren’s Mother Barbara who lost her battle with ALS in October 2014. The Hoosiers wore their red uniforms and Stetson’s green warmups said “Beat ALS” on them.
The Hillel Organization which helps and support the Jewish Students on IU’s campus wore Blue T-Shirts to support Sophomore Guard Yarden Garzon, who is from Israel. The shirts read, “I stand with Yarden” and “I Stand with Israel” on the front and “Shalosh Garzon,” with the number 12 on the back.
Garzon was the last member of the starting five announced, and she received a huge ovation.
“[The support] means a lot to me. With everything going at home in Israel, it means the world, I’m so grateful for that” Yarden Garzon said after the game.
The Hatters scored the opening basket 21 seconds into the game on a layup by Jaelyn Talley. Indiana first scored with 46 seconds into the match-up, with Mackenize Holmes stepping out beyond 15 feet to knock down a jumper. After some back and forth, Sophomore Forward Lilly Meister gave the Hoosiers the lead 9-7 with 6:05 left, and Indiana never looked back. The Hoosiers outscored the Hatters 15-2 the rest of the quarter to lead 24-9.
In the second quarter Indiana scored the first 8 points of the quarter and led 32-9 with 7:01 left in the quarter. Stetson scored its first point on a Jamiya Turner free throw with 6:50 left to make it 32-10. Promise Keshi scored the first field goal for Stetson with 4:52 left in the second quarter. Indiana outscored Stetson 17-11 in the quarter and went into the locker room leading 41-20 at half.
Stetson scored the first four points of the quarter and got the lead down to 17 with 7:49 left in the third. The Hoosiers increased the lead to 29 points when Lenee Beaumont hit a jumper with one second left in the quarter to put the Hoosiers up 58-29 going into the final ten minutes of the game.
The fourth quarter Hoosiers increased the led to 41 points with 5:38 left in the game when Lenne Beaumont hit another jumper. It would be last points scored for the Hoosiers as they went the rest of the game without scoring going 0-9 from the field. Stetson scored with 5:20 left on a jumper by Promise Keshi that would be the last field goal that would be scored in the game and a free throw by Sophia Fontaine with 1:35 left would be the last point scored in the game as the Hatters had 4 turnovers in the last 5:20 of the games.
Stetson had a size disadvantage against a much taller Indiana team, just like Maine did against the Hoosiers last Thursday night. Even so, the Hoosiers gave up 15 offensive rebounds to the Hatters, a reality that did not please Coach Moren.
“Good teams show up on the nights you have to be special, great teams show up every night. I’ve got to get them thinking differently in terms of their mindset” Coach Moren said after the game.
The Hoosiers did hold the Hatters to under 35 points and defense has always been a staple of Teri Moren’s teams at Indiana. “We need to keep stacking wins, good defensive wins,” Sydney Parrish mentioned during the press conference.
Mackenize Holmes scored 17 points in 19 minutes and has scored 2,043 points which puts her 322 points away from breaking the School Record held by Tyra Buss from 2014-18.
Yarden Garzon scored 14 points, dishing out 4 assists, and pulling down 2 rebounds. Sara Scalia scored 10 points, and Sydney Parrish pulled down 10 rebounds and had 8 points. The Hoosiers were 29-61 from the field for 47%, 5-22 from three-point line for 22%, and 9-14 from the Free Throw Line for 64%. The Hoosiers pulled down 46 rebounds, dished out 19 assists, 11 steals, 6 blocks, and committed just 10 turnovers. The Hoosiers scored 16 points of the bench and had 44 points in the paint.
Stetson, who drops to 2-7 and are 0-5 in road games, got 11 points from Jamiya Turner. The Hatters were 12-62 from the field for 19%, 3-24 from three-point range for 12% and 7-12 from the free throw line for 58%. The Hatters pulled down 38 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, 1 block and committed 16 turnovers. Stetson scored 10 points in the paint and 7 points in the paint.