Women's Basketball: Indiana's Season Ends With Loss to Connecticut in Regional Semifinals
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Connecticut has lost five games this year, and hasn't played with the usual swagger of an 11-time national champion. But Indiana found out the hard way Saturday that the Huskies are rounding into form and are still really, really good.
The No. 2 seed Huskies, playing front of a raucous sellout crowd not far away from their own campus, rolled past the No. 3-seed Hoosiers in the NCAA women's tournament regional semifinals, winning 75-58 thanks to a 16-0 run to start the second half and Indiana could never real them back in.
The Hoosiers finished the season 24-9, losing in the second week of the tournament for a second straight year. In 2021, they advanced a round further, upsetting No. 1 seed N.C. State along the way before losing in the Elite Eight. This time, UConn was too much, and it's the Huskies who will advance to Monday's regional final against the Wolfpack, who beat Notre Dame in the opener.
Senior guard Ali Patberg led the Hoosiers with 16 points. Grace Berger had 13 and forward Mackenzie Holmes had 12.
Indiana struggled to deal with Connecticut's size, especially during that run in the third quarter where the game got out of control. The Huskies had 15 offensive rebounds on this day, the Hoosiers just two.
"When the brackets come out, you just try to prepare for every team in your bracket the best you can,'' UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "When I saw our bracket ... I think the team that kind of escaped people's radar is Indiana. Playing Indiana, they put so much pressure on your guards. I thought we did an amazing job defensively, and I thought that was the difference in the game.
"We didn't let their guards go off, and that spurt in the third quarter really put is in a good position. It was a terrific win for us, especially against a very good team.''
Indiana hung tough in the first half, trading blows with the Huskies (28-5) throughout. Indiana got good looks and scored 18 points in the first eight minutes, leading by as much as five points at times. They moved the ball well, and scored from all over the court, with Patberg leading the way. She had seven early points.
"I've always said it, that we come into every game prepared with a great game plan,'' Patberg said. "I don't know how many points we had, but I think we missed some good looks, too that should have went down for us.''
UConn closed the period on a 6-0 run and then did it again after an Patberg three-pointer. Their lead grew to nine, but Indiana got a break as the half was ending. Holmes put up a shot as the clock was winding down, and it bounced off the rim. Time should have expired, but the clock inadvertently stopped at 1.3 seconds. After review, Indiana got the ball back and Aleksa Gulbe then hit a three at the buzzer, making it 37-33 at the break.
"We didn't like the way the half ended,'' said UConn forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa, who had 10 points and 14 rebounds, including five offensive boards. "We talked about it halftime, and made a point of coming out aggressive after halftime.''
The 16-0 run lasted more than four minutes and by the time Indiana finally scored, the lead was up to 20. Indiana was 0-for-4 with two turnovers during that stretch. The Hoosiers had 15 turnovers on the day.
"That just wasn't us there. We made some uncharacteristic mistakes,'' said Indiana coach Teri Moren, who's won 45 games in the past two years, including five NCAA Tournament games. ''We dug a big hole there, and you just can't do that against a team like Connecticut. They are very good. We knew they were disciplined defensively, but they were even more physical than we've seen. They took it to us there.
"I thought we did a good job of continuing to play hard and we got it, what, to 11 at one time. But that's a tough team to come all the way back against.''
Indiana, which beat Charlotte and Princeton last week in Bloomington to advance to the second round, chipped away at time, but could never get the lead under double digits. They got no closer than 11 points.
It was the end of the road for seniors Patberg, Gulbe, point guard Nicole Cardano-Hillary and reserve Grace Waggoner, who helped Moren build the Hoosiers into a perennial power now. They've made two straight NCAA Tournament runs and spent a lot of this season ranked high in the national polls.
Indiana has arrived as a force in women's college basketball. Stars Grace Berger and Holmes will be back next year, and the Hoosiers should be contenders again.
"There's still a lot of work to be done, but I can't say enough about AP (Patberg) and those seniors,'' Moren said. "We accomplished a lot together, and they've been a pleasure to coach. Not only are they good players, but they are good kids, too. And they've done a lot for this program, and for setting it in the right direction.''
Aleksa Gulbe
Ali Patberg
Ali Patberg
Chloe Moore-McNeilp.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Helvetica Neue'} UConn Huskies guard Azzi Fudd (35) defends against Indiana Hoosiers guard Chloe Moore-McNeil (22) during the second half in the Bridgeport regional semifinals of the women's college basketball NCAA Tournament at Webster Bank Arena. (David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports)
Grace Berger
Nicole Cardaño-Hillary
Nicole Cardaño-Hillary
Ali Patberg
Christyn Williams
Geno Auriemma
Paige Bueckers
