'Today Was Grace Berger Day': Indiana Women's Basketball Beats Rutgers
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana women's basketball improves to 20-1 on the season after defeating Rutgers 91-68 for its 15th consecutive home win. The team has also taken over first place in the Big Ten.
Although the Scarlet Knights kept it close in the first couple quarters, Indiana's 61 three-point percentage with downtown shots from multiple players led the Hoosiers to pull away in the second half in front of another large crowd of 8,598 fans.
Graduate student guard Grace Berger paved the way with a season-high 21 points off of a 3-for-3 performance from beyond the arc, seven assists and two steals.
"We've seen her do that before but today was I thought Grace Berger Day where she looked for her shot," Indiana head coach Teri Moren said.
"I thought she was aggressive and that was great to see, and we needed it because she had to carry us there for a little bit there I thought offensively when we weren't getting stops and we were trying to extend the lead."
Freshman guard Yarden Garzon contributed four triples while junior guard Sydney Parrish added three. In total, Indiana shot 63 percent from the field and limited Rutgers to 45 percent as the Scarlet Knights' shots suffered more in the second half rather than the first.
In the first quarter, Rutgers started off hot with the early basket followed up by Hoosier senior forward Mackenzie Holmes' layup off of Garzon's assist. Holmes then broke away for another layup in transition.
Garzon continued her three-point party as she hit two triples in back-to-back Hoosier possessions.
Later, Berger found Parrish for the backdoor cut and layup for the one-point lead. However, the Scarlet Knights weren't letting Indiana close the gap and had an impressive 6-0 run in less than a minute for a five-point lead at the end of the frame.
"I think especially in the first quarter they were scoring too easy on us," Berger said. "Collectively we knew we had to lock back in."
To begin the second quarter junior guard Chloe Moore-McNeil got the and-1 play to turn the tide for the Hoosiers. The Hall did its work as the sixth player on the floor and got up on its feet for extra support. Parrish then hit a corner three to force a Rutgers timeout.
Garzon then hit another three for a two-point lead while Berger soon after stole and scored as part of an 11-0 Hoosier run.
"Every time a shot goes up, sometimes I won't even go in and rebound the offensive board because I'm so confident that Yarden or Grace or Sara is just going to knock down shots," Parrish said.
Freshman forward Lilly Meister entered the match for Holmes and put up a nice defensive effort but also picked up two fouls in less than a minute as Holmes took back over.
Nonetheless Moren said she didn't agree with the calls and that Meister was where she needed to be. She's been terrific lately, Moren said.
The Scarlet Knights pulled within three with under four minutes to play in the half, but Indiana slowly built back up a 10-point lead with the help of two perfect free throw trips from freshman guard Lexus Bargesser and Holmes.
"I thought Lexie Bargesser came in and almost played 10 minutes today and was really good defensively," Moren said.
With the hot hand, Garzon connected on her fourth triple of the night for a perfect 4-for-4 so far. Indiana left the half with a 50-42 lead.
"We felt like we were soft to be honest with you in the first half in terms of getting to the loose balls, in terms of rebounding," Moren said. "They took it from us a few times right in front of our bench and so the challenge was we needed to be grittier. We needed to be tougher."
To start the second half, Rutgers chipped away off of a three for a 5-point difference before Berger nailed a three of her own on the next possession.
"Whether it's inside or outside...if I get an open look, if my teammates get open looks, we're confident enough to step up and hit it," Berger said.
Off of a long pass from Berger, Moore-McNeil went in for the layup that drew the foul. She missed the free throw, but it was still enough for Rutgers to call a timeout.
The break sparked a 6-0 Rutgers run with two and a half minutes to go in the third frame, but Berger's third triple shut that down as Indiana went on to lead by 10 going into the final frame.
"We knew that they were very athletic, super athletic, very quick off the bounce, so the biggest thing for us is it was going to challenge us with our one-on-one defense and just taking pride and keeping our man in front of us," Berger said.
Indiana earned its largest lead of the game in the fourth quarter as bench players started to roll in for the finish. Senior guard Sara Scalia connected on her first field goal of the game off a triple to give the Hoosiers more than a 20-point lead and strong ending.
"It was a great win today, but there was a concern for me yesterday inside of our practice," Moren said. "We can't get ahead of ourselves. We have an incredibly difficult stretch. We still have to go to Minnesota and then we have to go to Purdue who beat Ohio State today."
Up next, Indiana will start its road game stretch with a trip to face the Golden Gophers on Wednesday, Feb. 1 followed by an in-state rival game versus the Boilermakers in West Lafayette on Sunday, Feb. 5.
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