Indiana Women's Basketball Looks to Bounce Back at Penn State Thursday Night
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana women's basketball has stayed on the East Coast ever since suffering an 84-80 loss to No. 12 Maryland on Monday night.
The No. 19 Hoosiers have another game against Penn State Thursday night and decided to stay on the road.
For Thursday's game, it's all about starting off better. Against Maryland, Indiana got down 10-0 less than two minutes into the game and spent the rest of it playing from behind.
"We gotta get off to a better start," head coach Teri Moren said. "I did like our fight. I like the way that we fought back. Come Thursday night against Penn State we gotta start better."
Penn State is 3-4 overall and 0-3 in the conference. Despite the struggles, Moren thinks this is a much different Penn State team than the one the Hoosiers beat by 16 last year.
Carolyn Kieger is in her second year as the head coach of the Nittany Lions, and she's trying to turn around the attitude of the program.
"I think they play with a tremendous competitive attitude," Moren said.
There are eight new players on the Nittany Lion roster as well. They are led by Kelly Jekot's 16.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per contest. Makenna Marisa adds 14.3 points, 5.1 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game.
Maddie Burke leads behind the 3-point line with 13 makes and Johnasia Cash is also averaging double figures with 10.9 points per game. They are averaging 78.7 points per game and shooting 44.6 percent from the floor.
"They gave Maryland everything they wanted a week ago," Moren said. "This is a team that wants to play fast, and they want to air it out from the perimeter."
While Penn State is looking for its first Big Ten win of the season, Indiana is looking to bounce back from its first Big Ten loss this season.
The Hoosiers were 3-0 in conference play prior to the Maryland defeat. Grace Berger scored a career-high 26 points in the game to keep Indiana within distance, but there is one thing that was clear to Moren Monday night in State College.
"She needs help," Moren said.
Moren specifically pointed to Aleksa Gulbe and Ali Patberg to help out Berger in the scoring department. She thinks Gulbe needs to be more consistent and Patberg needs to be more aggressive.
Indiana may also be without two of its key players Thursday night as well. Jaelynn Penn rolled an ankle against Maryland and missed most of the fourth quarter, and Nicole Cardaño-Hillary has a swollen eye after getting hit with an elbow.
A program spokesperson said just before tip-off, "Junior guard Jaelynn Penn is still under medical evaluation and will not be available for tonight’s game at Penn State. Redshirt junior guard Nicole Cardaño-Hillary has been cleared and is available to play tonight against Penn State."
Cardaño-Hillary is always the first player off the bench for Indiana, and Penn is a key starter that can light it up from 3-point range. With Penn definitely out, Indiana is going to need contributions from everybody to beat a high-octane Penn State team.
"We always talk about having bounce back ability." Moren said. "We have to show a lot of resilience."