If you’re going to blow out a team, you might as well do it in record style. That’s what the Hoosiers accomplished Sunday with a 111-47 victory over Nicholls State University.
The Hoosiers sprinted out to a 15-0 first quarter lead and continued building on it, finishing the game with their second highest margin of victory ever at 64 points.
Five different Hoosiers cracked double digits, led by freshman forward Mackenzie Holmes’ 22 points off the bench.
The Hoosiers could do no wrong it seemed, as they pushed the pace to rack up a program record 33 assists to just 10 turnovers, while falling five points shy of the program record for points in a single game. IU also had shot 63.4% from the field.
“I think our kids like playing that way,” said IU head coach Teri Moren. “It’s not only our philosophy offensively and something that we feel like at times is our best offense, but to have the willingness of our players to run the floor, like our guards do.”
No one benefited more from the fast-paced style of play than Holmes and junior guard Ali Patberg.
While Holmes racked up 11 of the Hoosiers 35 points in the first quarter, coincidentally the second most points by the Hoosiers in one quarter in program history, Patberg picked up seven of her nine total assists in the quarter too.
With a good chunk of Holmes’ points coming off of feeds from Patberg, she emphasized the importance of the Hoosiers’ bigs joining the break too.
“As a point guard, when your posts run hard you always reward them,” Patberg said. “I told her that if she’s gonna run hard, we’re gonna throw it to her.”
Patberg had quite a game herself, finishing just shy of the first triple double in IU women’s basketball history, with 17 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. It was another brush with history for the point guard in a historic day for the Hoosiers.
“Ali Patberg is just going to be happy that we won the game today,” Moren said.
Moren was no doubt happy with the Hoosiers' overall effort as well. IU racked up 55 points off the bench, 19 second chance points, six blocks and 11 steals.
The hustle stats for the Hoosiers indicate exactly what was witnessed on the court Sunday afternoon — complete and total domination from start to finish.
“I thought their intensity, their intent, their energy level for the most part was pretty consistent throughout,” Moren said. “And we didn’t see that on Thursday night. I really got on them about finishing the right way regardless of the scoreboard, and I thought they were intent on doing that.”
With a 2-0 start secured for IU, the reward is a full week off before playing Jackson State University next Sunday.
Moren plans to balance rest and preparation as the team prepares for its schedule to strengthen post-Thanksgiving.
“The month of November for us is no joke,” Moren said. “We’ve got to go on the road here after Jackson State and then go down to the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands. So, it’s going to pick up here.”
