Mackenzie Holmes' Career Night Leads Indiana Basketball to Road Win at Ohio State
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Indiana women's basketball easily took down No. 13 Ohio State 83-59 in Columbus as senior forward Mackenzie Holmes scored a career-high 33 points. The No. 2 Hoosiers are now 8-0 over ranked opponents.
"It's hard to double team someone when you have someone like Sara and Yarden and Sydney on the perimeter who will make you pay for doing that, and my teammates also do a great job of finding me, so I think it's just collectively all of those things together help the success I've had," Holmes said.
Holmes was one of three Hoosiers in double-figure scoring as senior guard Sara Scalia added her season-high 24 points off the bench with six three pointers.
"Early, I got a couple open looks that I hit, so once a few started falling, just keep shooting and obviously trust the work I put in to be able to hit shots specifically on the three-point line," Scalia said.
As a whole, Indiana shot 59.6 percent from the field and held Ohio State, the second best offense in the Big Ten, to 45.6 percent from the field. Plus, Indiana got up early and fast and never looked back.
Indiana head coach Teri Moren was pleased with her skilled shooters but also junior guard Chloe Moore-McNeil whose strong defensive efforts don't always show up in the box score.
"Somebody has to have the moxie and have the willingness to want to take on the challenge of guarding the other team's best player, and we are so blessed and grateful that Chloe is that person for us," Moren said.
Although Ohio State has three starters out with injury, senior guard Taylor Mikesell was ready to attack as the Buckeyes' leading scorer, but Moore-McNeil and company didn't let her or the rest of the group get too far.
In the first quarter, Indiana started off with a turnover and a couple missed shots before senior guard Grace Berger made a complete and-1 play.
A sequence of missed shots from both squads followed until Ohio State went 3-for-3 for a stretch to tie it up at six with just over six minutes to go.
Holmes added to the lead with a pair of back-to-back layups as freshman guard Yarden Garzon hit her first triple of the game under the four-minute mark.
To end the first frame, Scalia hit a three and followed it up with a layup in transition for a Hoosier 14-point lead.
"We feel like she was the missing ingredient to this whole thing when we got her out of the portal," Moren said.
Scalia started the second quarter with a triple and moments later, Moore-McNeil made an incredible steal and score play.
Under the nine minute-mark, Scalia made two more three-pointers for a perfect 4-for-4 start from downtown.
"She's an elite shooter, and everything that came out of her hands looked so good tonight," Moren said.
The Buckeyes' offense started rolling too as they hit 6-of-8 shots, but Indiana had built up too much of a lead and kept at it as Scalia drained another three and Berger hit a midrange jumper to give Indiana a 54-29 lead at the half.
"I thought what we did on another level tonight was really get out to a fast start offensively, get a lot of points on the board," Moren said.
To open the second half, Ohio State made a three-pointer and eventually went on a 7-0 run while Indiana shot 1-for-9 during a two-minute scoring drought before Holmes hit a layup to give the Hoosiers their 20-point lead back.
"We knew there was going to be a run that was going to be made by Ohio State, and sure enough there was, but one of the things with this group is they don't panic," Moren said.
Ohio State hit another big three and started chipping away to a deficit as small as 10.
"They run excellent offense, so they really test you in a lot of ways guarding in the half court," Moren said.
Scalia then silenced the Buckeyes with yet another three while Berger added one of her own as the shot clock expired.
In the final quarter, Indiana continued to pull away as Ohio State scored 1-of-9 shots for a period while Indiana maintained its strong presence on its way to a 24-1 season record.
Up next, the Hoosiers will return home to Bloomington to face No. 12 Michigan for the second time this season on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET.
"We still have three games ahead that are not easy," Moren said.
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