IU women's basketball bounces back from Iowa loss, takes down Minnesota at Assembly Hall

BLOOMINGTON -- IU women's basketball rebounded from its loss to Iowa on Wednesday night, taking down Minnesota, 85-62, improving to 15-2 on the season (6-1 in Big Ten).

“The Big Ten doesn’t wait for anybody,” Holmes said postgame. “We have to move on. Game after game, they’re going to keep coming. We have to learn from the Iowa game, but we can’t let it become a snowball effect. I think we have a really mature group, and we did a really good job of that tonight.”

Here are three observations from the bounce-back victory:

Hoosiers get aggressive after slow start

IU wasn’t being aggressive in the first quarter, leading to an early scare.

While Minnesota has not been a perennially good team in the Big Ten, it has vastly improved under first-year head coach Dawn Plitzuweit and brought a 13-3 record into Assembly Hall. 

After Minnesota won the tip, IU allowed the Gophers to make their first three 3-point shots, leading to a 13-10 Gophers lead. Pair that with an early off-ball offensive foul on IU guard Yarden Garzon, and the Hoosiers looked sluggish.

Then IU woke up.

"This is a really good basketball team when they're connected, when they're playing fast, when they're sharing the ball," head coach Teri Moren said. "When they are intentional about what their assignments are defensively, and they're really super focused on that."

After winning the first quarter, 23-18, IU outscored Minnesota by 13 points in the second quarter for an 18-point halftime lead. Minnesota only made four shots in the second quarter and just one 3-pointer.

While Minnesota tried to climb back in the second half, IU’s halftime lead was too much to overcome -- the Gophers didn't get closer than 12 points the rest of the way. IU's aggressiveness was still on display in the fourth quarter, as Mackenzie Holmes fought for (and got) an offensive rebound to reset the shot clock with 4 minutes left.

Sara Scalia rebounds from tough shooting night

Sara Scalia had an uncharacteristic tough shooting night against Iowa. The senior guard, who is IU’s best 3-point shooter, shot just 3-of-10 from the field and 0-of-4 from 3.

On Wednesday, she returned to form against her former team -- Scalia transferred to IU from Minnesota ahead of the 2022-23 season.

"Obviously, Minnesota is always going to be home to me," Scalia said. "That's where I grew up, and it's special to me for sure. It's definitely a different feeling being on the other side of the bench, but I was just happy to be out there with the team I'm on now and come out with the win."

Scalia was sizzling from 3-point range against Minnesota, her former team, racking up four makes from beyond the arc in the first half. Two of those were included in Scalia's personal 8-point run in the second quarter, making a 3-pointer, a layup, and another 3-pointer to give IU an 18-point advantage. Scalia checked out after that run to a standing ovation. 

Scalia cooled down in the second half, but IU maintained at least a 12-point lead for the final 10 minutes. She finished with 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting (5-of-11 from 3-point range).

Hoosiers again struggle from free-throw line

Free-throw shooting has been a constant point of contention for the Hoosiers this year. IU is averaging just a 69.5% clip from the line, 11th in the Big Ten and 196th in the country.

That continued on Wednesday, as IU went 8-of-12. Sophomore guard Lexus Bargesser missed two of her four, while Sara Scalia and Lilly Meister each went 1-of-2.

While free-throw shooting didn't factor into the outcome, the Hoosiers' free-throw shooting could leave them on the bad end of a make-or-break victory later in conference play -- or in the postseason.