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Indiana was playing its final game in Assembly Hall for the season and had a chance to go to back-to-back Sweet Sixteens on Monday night. A tough Princeton squad was looking to continue its Cinderella run in the NCAA Tournamnent after taking down Kentucky in the Round of 64.

Once again, Princeton would not go away.

Despite Indiana having a 10-point lead going into the half, a 13-6 third quarter for the Tigers made Monday's game another classic ending for the Hoosiers... and more specifically someone who has done it game and game again, Grace Berger.

After having a difficult fourth quarter, Berger came up big when it mattered. She would go to the free throw line and split a pair of free throws to tie the game at 52-all with 58.1 seconds left.

Then, after a defensive stop, it was Berger out of the timeout who drove right, spun back in the lane and finished through the defense to give Indiana a 54-52 lead with 28.2 seconds left.

That would be the final straw for Indiana as free throws stretched it to four point game with one second left, ultimately taking down the Tigers, 56-55.

"Yeah, Coach Rhet (Wierzba) drew up a great play to get a smaller player switched off of me, so then I was just focused on getting my head down and getting to the rim as quickly as I could," Berger said of the play that was ultimately the game-winner. "Nicki set it up perfectly for me, got me going downhill, and then I got to the rim, so Coach Rhet, credit to him for drawing up a great play."

"The one thing about Grace, the reason we put the ball in her hands so often is because she elevates, and she usually is our best at getting a shot off. She's been in those scenarios before where she's had to make big plays," IU head coach Teri Moren added. "At Purdue she had to come up with, going down the stretch there, some real big shots that she hit.

"Like I said, Grace does what Grace does."

Berger had game-high 15 points on 7-of-14 from the field and seven rebounds. She had all three of her fourth quarter points under one minute left.

"Well, because she's Grace, right? You know, we had been trying to get she and Mac in the two-man game, especially in the second half, and again, credit Princeton. They just made it so incredibly hard on us. They have great length. They're very aggressive," Moren said. "We always just kind of laugh and say, well, of course we want her to go make the play for us. And she did.

"It was a big-time -- but you guys have all been around sports. Big-time players make big-time plays. That's exactly what G did today for us."

Not only did Berger come up big late, her ability to adjust throughout the game was key for the Hoosiers. After five first half turnovers, she coughed it up just once in the second half.

Indiana had 17 turnovers on the night, with 10 coming in the first half.

"Certainly I heard they were a really good defensive team, but I think once I got in that first half, I kind of really realized for myself how good they were, how aggressive they were, how long they were," Berger said. "Credit to them, they definitely made everything hard for me."

After no Sweet Sixteen appearances in program history going into last season, Indiana has now reached the Sweet Sixteen in back-to-back years. Last season IU made its deepest program run to the Elite Eight.

"Well, it's obviously terrific because it's just another goal that we had set out. We wanted to make another deep run in the tournament," Moren said. "But it's hard. It's so hard to win. I think there was probably excitement. I think there was more relief on our end as a coaching staff because we didn't feel like we played our best basketball, but we made enough plays.

"But to be able to go to back to back Sweet 16s is special. If you talk to that group in the locker room right now, the job is not done. We want to go deeper than just a Sweet 16."

As Indiana closes out its games at Assembly Hall for the 2021-22 season, Berger isn't ready to stop there and wants to keep going to take this program to even new heights.

"It's unbelievable," Berger said. "I mean, playing for IU means everything for me, and I remember four years ago we were just struggling to even get in the tournament, and then we got that win and it was huge for us.

"So now to see us get to the Sweet 16 two years in a row, it's just really special, and it's something that never gets old, and I just hope that we can keep going for our seniors."

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