The size advantage on the interior for IU was evident inside the doors of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The Hoosiers tallied 50 points in the paint. The Presbyterian Blue Hose were completely outmatched in that aspect. Just one player over six-feet saw floor time for the Blue Hose and IU took advantage.
IU outrebounded Presbyterian by 22 and ended up running away with a 71-37 win to open the regular season.
“They really didn’t have a post player back to the basket,” IU Coach Teri Moren said. “It was going to put a lot of pressure on our bigs to get out of their comfort zone and get off their blocks, and guard the three-point line. For the most part, I think we did a good job of that. I was really pleased with how all of our post players played.”
Moren said they considered Presbyterian as a group of “hybrid players.” They played many different positions, but it was hard for the Blue Hose to keep up with the size and depth of the Hoosiers. IU ended up playing 10 players more than 10 minutes.
IU sophomore forward Kym Royster set the tone and Moren was singing the praises of her play. She was the driving factor for the Hoosiers down in the post and finished with nine points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes of game action.
“I thought Kym Royster has just continued to play with more confidence,” Moren said. “Kym has really played well for us. I hope that that continues because we know what Jenn Anderson can provide for us, but Kym has been providing consistently well in practice and it’s a good thing to see.”
This game was really a game for IU’s posts players to assert their dominance. Royster was definitely one to do so, but IU junior forward Amanda Cahill and IU senior forward Jenn Anderson also turned solid games.
Cahill ended the night with 12 points and 11 boards. With another double digit scoring output, Cahill has now scored in double figures for the 26th time in 27 games dating back to the 2015-16 season.
“Coach Moren really emphasized that they really could not guard our post,” Royster said. “Our goal was to get it inside because we knew we had that advantage.”
Second chance points were another facet of the game that the Hoosiers dominated. Some of it was because of the size advantage and some of it had to do with the aggressiveness in which the Hoosiers played with on the boards.
Moren called that facet of the game one the Hoosiers had a lot of room to improve on from last season. IU ended up with 24 compared to just six for the Blue Hose.
“Something that we were really trying to improve on was not just to contact box, and own the boards, but also have more motivation to go to the offensive glass,” Moren said. “We grew in the right direction. We still have a long way to go, but I thought we did get to see really good things.”
