No. 19 Indiana Defeats Minnesota for First Road Win

Indiana had 22 assists in the game, which is the type of sharing Teri Moren wants her team to have throughout the season.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — When Indiana lost to Tennessee in its final nonconference game, the Hoosiers finished the game with four assists as a team.

That was unacceptable to head coach Teri Moren, so she made a big emphasis for her team to fix that. 

In the Big Ten opener against Nebraska, the Hoosiers finished with 16 assists. Wednesday against Minnesota on the road, Indiana took it to another level, finishing with 22 assists, which propelled the Hoosiers to a 75-54 victory.

"Those wins are always incredibly difficult to win, but road wins as I always say are a different kind of challenge," Moren said. "Really happy and pleased with the way we played this afternoon tonight against a really good Minnesota team on the road."

Indiana got fired up by a sequence that ended the first quarter at The Barn on Wednesday.

The Hoosiers had a shot clock violation, which turned the ball over to Minnesota and led to a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer by Alexia Smith, giving the Gophers a 16-15 lead.

Penn said postgame Indiana was frustrated with that series of events in the huddle and came out fired up in the second.

Much like in the game against Nebraska, Indiana used the second quarter to build its large lead.

Mackenzie Holmes started to get things going on both ends of the floor. She was blocking shots and getting solid position in the paint for easy buckets.

She had nine points at the half while Indiana won the quarter 21-9 and took an 11-point lead into halftime.

Moren said Holmes has looked much more comfortable in Big Ten play and is back to scoring in efficient ways.

Penn got rolling in the third quarter, scoring a quick five points to get her into double digits.

Indiana continued to trouble the Gophers with giving Aleksa Gulbe the ball on the elbow, and having Penn cut backdoor for an easy two points.

Penn said the Hoosiers really stressed taking advantage of Minnesota's zone defense, and those back cuts were open all day.

Penn and Holmes led the way for Indiana with 19 points each while Grace Berger added 13 and Gulbe had 11.

The Hoosiers have bounced back nicely ever since starting Big Ten play. Indiana suffered two tough losses to Kentucky and Tennessee, but the team felt like it was a fresh start getting into conference play.

Indiana has won its first two conference games by an average of 28.5 points, giving the Hoosiers an overall record of 4-2.

Indiana's next game will come on New Year's Eve when it competes against Illinois in Assembly Hall.

Below is the full box score from Indiana's win: