Indiana women’s basketball bounces back from Iowa loss with blowout win against Minnesota
There’s no denying that Saturday’s performance in Iowa City was disheartening for Indiana. On national television, the Hoosiers suffered what Teri Moren described as an “uninspiring” loss to No. 3 Iowa. But Wednesday night was an opportunity to flip the page from what transpired at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, an 84-57 loss to the Hawkeyes.
The Hoosiers were back in Assembly Hall Wednesday night to take on 13-3 Minnesota. The 40 minutes against the Gophers was the medicine Indiana needed. The performance against Iowa was frustrating for the Hoosiers, so the best way to move on was to play the next game as quickly as possible.
Indiana cruised to an 85-62 win against Minnesota, fueled by a 32-point showing from Mackenzie Holmes. A new day with a blank slate was an opportunity for the Hoosiers to flip the page from Saturday and that’s exactly what happened.
“You guys have heard me say this before, you know when you have performances like we had the other night at Iowa,” Moren said. “The best remedy for that is to get back on the floor as quickly as you can.”
The Hoosiers shot 58.9 percent, made 11 3-pointers and assisted 23 of their 33 made shots while holding Minnesota to 42.1 percent shooting. It was similar to the game against Nebraska a few weeks ago as Indiana controlled the game throughout. Holmes led the Hoosiers in scoring as Sara Scalia added 22 points and Sydney Parrish had 15.
Indiana came out and responded the way it needed to. They had to flush the Iowa loss and move on to the challenge in front of them. The Iowa game wasn’t easy, but that’s life in the Big Ten. In this conference, you can’t just sit back and think about tough losses.
“The Big Ten doesn’t wait on anybody,” Holmes said. “We have to move on. Game after game, they’re just gonna keep coming, and we have to be ready. We have to learn from the Iowa game, but we can’t let it affect us for the next game and let it become a snowball effect.”
Back in November, Indiana suffered a similar loss to Stanford. When they returned to Assembly Hall, they responded with an easy win against Murray State. and went on a 13-game winning streak. Things might have failed in Iowa, but we’ve seen this before this season. The game against Minnesota was the first step in that process as Indiana regained its footing.
When this team is clicking, their rhythm on the court is hard to beat.
“We weren’t the other night, but this is a really good basketball team,” Moren said. “When they’re connected, when they’re playing fast, when they’re sharing the ball, when they are intentional about what their assignments are defensively, and they’re really super focused on that…I liked their focus. I liked how they came out today and executed. You know, quite frankly, they executed the things that we’ve been talking about.”
The win against Minnesota was a much-needed reset for Indiana. And like any good team does, the Hoosiers didn’t let the performance at Iowa carry over to the next game.
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
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