IU women’s basketball made history this postseason and did so without even participating in the NCAA Tournament.
Sure, there was disappointment from IU Coach Teri Moren and her Hoosiers for missing out on the premier postseason competition, but now in the WNIT, IU has put that letdown firmly in the past.
With a 71-53 win against Saint Louis on Sunday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in the second round of the WNIT, IU set a program record for most wins in a season and booked its ticket to the round of 16.
The Hoosiers moved to 22-10 on the season with the win and set a new standard for IU women’s basketball in the process. After the game, junior forward Amanda Cahill, who had a game-high 17 points, said breaking the record was a special moment.
“We want to do it for the seniors, so it’s something to hang their hat on as they go out,” Cahill said. “We were just really happy that we were able to do it, especially on our home floor.”
After one quarter Sunday afternoon, IU was fortunate to trail by only three points. The Hoosiers shot just 28 percent from the floor in the opening frame, while the Billikens made 53 percent of their shots.
Despite a slow start from the field overall, however, IU’s 3-point shooting stayed consistent throughout the first half and was a big key in the 21-0 run that allowed the Hoosiers to take the lead for good.
The Hoosiers went into halftime with five makes in nine tries from behind the arc and finished the game shooting 50 percent from deep.
Early on, Saint Louis made a killing in transition. The Billikens continually took advantage of missed shots by the Hoosiers. Saint Louis’ fast break, led by junior guard Jackie Kemph, burned IU on several occasions. Ultimately, however, Moren and her squad adjusted and held Kemph to just 11 points in the game.
“We were just really locked in to tendencies of each player,” Moren said. “To hold Jackie Kemph just to four points in the second half I thought was big for us.”
With a comfortable 18-point lead coming out of the break, all IU had to do was play even with Saint Louis and match the level of intensity. Fittingly, the Hoosiers broke their halftime huddle by yelling just one word — energy. After a quick seven points from the Billikens to start the second half, the Hoosiers responded and never allowed their lead to decrease to single digits.
Moren said she wasn’t particularly pleased with allowing 19 points to Saint Louis in the third quarter, but because IU matched with 19 of its own, the defensive lapses didn’t become an important issue.
“The challenge is always to come out and not have a drop in our energy level and be really, really excited to get off to a good start,” Moren said. “Although that didn’t happen defensively, I did think that we responded in a big way.”
IU began the fourth with the same 18-point lead it carried into halftime, and Moren was able to use a mix of freshman-laden lineups throughout the quarter. Cahill played just 27 minutes, and junior guard Tyra Buss played just 32 minutes while scoring 15 points. Both Buss and Cahill played several minutes less than their season averages for on-court time.
Freshmen forwards Darby Foresman and Bre Wickware both earned 10 or more minutes of playing time, and Moren said the tournament experience will only help them moving forward in their careers.
“You always love to get your bench playing time,” Moren said. “Any kind of experience that you can give your young kids I think is a plus.”
Up next, IU will play either Southern Methodist University or Abilene Christian in the WNIT Round of 16 at 7 p.m. on Thursday night at Assembly Hall. With another chance at a home game for the seniors and the opportunity to add to the program-record 22 wins, the excitement level is only rising for the Hoosiers.
“We’re really grateful for the opportunity to keep playing in the postseason and just trying to obviously beat that record and milestone,” Cahill said.
