WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana — It took until their fourth and final season, but seniors Amanda Cahill and Tyra Buss finally picked up a victory inside Mackey Arena.
The 52-44 victory wasn’t an easy one, however.
The Hoosiers only scored four points in the first quarter, shooting 2-17 from the field and 0-6 from three to find themselves down by nine.
The cream and crimson came out in the second quarter and scored as much as the Hoosiers did in the first in just one minute.
The defense of the Hoosiers was stifling and led to a 13-2 run to take a 17-15 lead with three minutes to go until the half.
“I thought our defense throughout the 40 minutes was really good,” IU Coach Teri Moren said.
As Moren alluded to, the team’s defense didn’t slow down after the 13-2 run in the second. The Hoosiers only allowed nine Boilermaker points in the second and went into halftime tied at 22.
The third quarter started similar to the first as IU struggled to find a rhythm offensively and let up some easy Purdue points.
Down 29-23, IU held Purdue scoreless for the remainder of the quarter and scored nine straight to take a 32-29 lead into the fourth.
With a five-game winning streak on the line, the Hoosiers needed to keep up its defensive intensity for ten more minutes and score just enough buckets to hold off the Boilermakers.
With baskets from four of its five starters, IU had no issue closing out the game.
“We’ve grown in knowing what a good shot looks like, especially for our young kids,” Moren said. “When you have a lead and are trying to hang on to it, we know the time to score is always paramount.”
IU held Purdue to 30-percent shooting on the night and IU had nine steals.
In the fourth quarter, Cahill scored five of her 16 points for the Hoosiers and also snagged eleven rebounds to give her a double-double on the evening.
After being held scoreless in the first half, Buss finished with 13 points and scored the team’s final seven.
“It was a huge game,” Cahill said. “It was really special for us to beat them both times this season and we just have to keep it going.”
This marks the sixth-straight win for the Hoosiers after starting out the Big Ten season 1-6. Now, the team has a 7-6 conference record and 14-12 overall record.
This was also the first time since the 1985 season that IU has beaten Purdue both in Assembly Hall and Mackey Arena in the same season.
“Every game for us is big,” Moren said. “I don’t know that Purdue is any bigger than the other teams we have to play this season. But I think the fact that it is in-state rival Purdue-Indiana, there are going to be a lot of happy people in Bloomington tonight.”
