Indiana Women's Basketball Ends Regular Season With a Loss to Maryland

It was a close one in College Park, Md. as the Hoosiers fought to stay alive but ultimately fell to Maryland 67-64 for their last regular season game. The loss keeps the Hoosiers under 20 wins this season, but there is still plenty of basketball to be played starting next week with the Big Ten Tournament.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Indiana women's regular season basketball is over, and it did not end as expected.

As part of a 3-game losing streak, the Hoosiers fell to Maryland 67-64 in College Park, Md. on Friday night.

While the team is frustrated, Indiana head coach Teri Moren views regular season as one season and the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA tournament as two separate seasons. There is plenty of basketball left.

"It's embarrassing," graduate student guard Ali Patberg said. "We're a veteran group. We shouldn't have to fight our way back into games like we've been doing. 

"It all comes to our focus. We were prepared. Our coaches always have us prepared, but we didn't go out and execute. We didn't play tendencies. We didn't do what we were asked, and it's frustrating."

Senior guard Grace Berger led the Hoosiers with a double-double 16 points and 10 rebounds followed by Patberg's 13 points. The Hoosiers shot 41 percent from the floor compared to the Terrapins' 43.8 percent.

Junior forward Mackenzie Holmes is still getting back into her rhythm and managed 11 points even after very few reps in one practice this week. She said she doesn't have a timetable on when she will be 100 percent, but she wouldn't be on the floor if she didn't think she could contribute.

Holmes had the daunting task of guarding Maryland sophomore guard Angel Reese who had 20 points and a whopping 16 rebounds.

"She played great tonight," Holmes said. "She's long. She's athletic. She can go left and right. I think she just outplayed us tonight — outplayed me tonight."

Reese kills players with her second chance opportunities, Moren said. If you don't box her out, she will make you pay by getting her own offensive rebounds.

In the first quarter, Moren said her Hoosiers started off sloppy. Indiana fell behind by nine points and continued to fall even further at the start of the second quarter. 

Down by 12, sophomore guard Chloe Moore-McNeil dropped a three followed by senior forward Aleksa Gulbe who copied her teammate swishing one from beyond the arc herself.

"I thought Chloe Moore-McNeil was terrific for us tonight," Moren said.

Patberg hit a triple in the corner to end the half down by only five points. Moren said herself and the staff weren't necessarily excited by only being down a handful, but they were happy it was a good ball game.

The double-digit hole returned in the third quarter until Berger's pull-up jumper and Patberg's three-pointer pulled the Hoosiers within six points.

But Maryland kept on responding promptly. 

"That's the frustrating part," Patberg said. "We know that they're shooters, and we let them shoot."

Moore-McNeil brought the deficit to just four points following her three-pointer off of Berger's assist.

Although Indiana struggled in this frame, Patberg's pair of assists brought her to the milestone of being the third player in Indiana women's basketball history to record 500 assists. She would end the game with four total assists.

In the fourth quarter, graduate student guard Nicole Cardaño-Hillary hit her first shot and three-pointer of the night to make it a 1-point game with under 40 seconds to go. 

She would finish with an uncharacteristic 1-for-10 from the field.

"For whatever reason tonight, I don't have an answer for Nikki, why she was average at best," Moren said.

The Hoosiers fell short defending Terrapins' graduate student guard Katie Benzan who scored with under 12 seconds to play. 

Cardaño-Hillary tried to tie it up at the end but couldn't connect as the clock expired.

Moren said the Hoosiers had a terrific scouting report and game plan, but it just wasn't enough.

"I think we have gone through a tough stretch," Moren said. "It's like an NBA schedule that we've endured."

Now, Indiana awaits the final Big Ten Tournament bracket, which will be set in stone after the rest of the league finishes up on Sunday. The tournament will run from March 2-6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Related stories on Indiana women's basketball

• INDIANA TO TAKE ON MARYLAND FOR LAST REGULAR SEASON GAME: The Hoosiers defeated Maryland for the first time in history earlier this season in Bloomington. Now, they will finish their regular season schedule with the Terrapins on Friday in College Park with a Big Ten regular season championship on the line as the conference teams round out their seasons. CLICK HERE.
• HOOSIERS FALL TO IOWA ON THE ROAD: The Hoosiers headed to Iowa City in search of redemption but left with the same feeling of defeat as they dropped their second straight game to the Hawkeyes 88-82. Senior guard Grace Berger fought hard for her team putting up 22 points, but Iowa's Monika Czinano outdid her scoring 31 points to defend home court. CLICK HERE.
• INDIANA DROPS TO NO. 10 IN AP POLL: Updated on Monday, the Hoosiers went from being the Big Ten's top ranked team at No. 5 to the conference's second ranked team at No. 10. Michigan jumps up three spots to No. 6. CLICK HERE.