Aggressive Ali Patberg Leads No. 19 Indiana to Second-Straight Win
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — After a nine-point performance in an 84-80 loss to Maryland a week ago, Indiana head coach Teri Moren said point guard Ali Patberg needed to be more aggressive.
Patberg answered the bell in the two following games, coming up with back-to-back 20-point performances.
Her latest came Sunday at home against Wisconsin, where she led Indiana in scoring with 21 points as the Hoosiers rolled to a 74-49 victory.
Patberg was five points shy of a season-high, which currently sits at 24 in the game against Penn State before this one.
Moren has always said when Patberg is aggressive, it makes Indiana better.
The Hoosiers got off to a slow start against Wisconsin, but Patberg was the one putting the ball in the basket early. She had five points at the end of the first quarter, but Indiana was shooting 28% from the field and 50% from the free-throw line.
"I thought it was a slow start for us particularly in the first quarter," Moren said. "I am not sure the reason of that."
Wisconsin went a 6-0 run in the second quarter to even the score up at 20, but Indiana was able to weather the storm and take an 11-point lead into halftime.
Patberg hit two threes in the second quarter and had 11 points at halftime. Mackenzie Holmes had 12 points at the break as well.
"It was great to see the three ball fall, especially for Ali," Moren said.
Indiana started to roll in the second half. The Hoosiers really took advantage of capitalizing on Wisconsin's turnovers.
The Badgers turned it over 18 times and Indiana scored 24 points off it. Indiana turned it over 10 times and Wisconsin had just five points from those.
Wisconsin didn't score more than 15 points in any of the four quarters.
"That's something we've been working on is to make sure we don't come out flat-footed," Holmes said of the second-half start. "We like to start fast."
Indiana remained without Jaelynn Penn for the second-straight game Sunday as she is nursing an ankle that was twisted against Maryland. With Penn out, Moren turned to her bench a little more to find contributions.
Kiandra Browne, Keyanna Warthen and Grace Waggoner all provided solid minutes off the bench.
"I thought KB (Kiandra Browne) came in a gave us great minutes," Moren said. "I thought Grace Waggoner came in and sort of held the fort down. That was great to see as well."
Warthen was tasked to guard Sydney Hilliard, who is Wisconsin's best perimeter player. Moren was very pleased with how Warthen performed, saying the team trusts Warthen to do what is asked of her.
When Warthen was out of the game, it was Patberg who took the Hilliard assignment. Although Hilliard scored a game-high 23 points, Moren liked the way Patberg defended her for most of the game.
"If there is one thing to point out defensively, Sydney Hilliard is a great player in this league. And just to be a sophomore, she was a difficult guard last year and continues to be a difficult guard," Moren said. "But I did think that in the second half in particular, Ali did a really great job on her. Her 23 points is not indicative either. I thought the work she had to do particularly in the second half as I thought Ali did a much better job."
The aggression from Patberg on both sides of the floor will be huge for this Indiana team as Big Ten play continues, especially if Penn remains sidelined for an extended period of time.
With the big win over Wisconsin, Indiana is now 7-3 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten. Indiana's next game will come at Mackey Arena when the Hoosiers take on Purdue on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET.
"Great team win, as I said to our kids winning is hard," Moren said. "Winning is hard in this league."