Following a 25-point weekend win over Maine, Indiana women's basketball (5-3 overall, 0-0 in Big Ten play) was back in action at home to play host to Southern Indiana (7-1 overall, 0-0 in OVC play) on Wednesday night.
The Hoosiers, behind a strong third quarter and a good enough close to the game, sruvived the Screaming Eagles' upset bid, winning 67-63 on Wednesday night.
Here's how it happened inside Assembly Hall.
SOUTHERN INDIANA HANGS TIGHT THOUGH FIRST QUARTER
Indiana got off to a hot start early in the first quarter against Southern Indiana. The Hoosiers found themselves holding onto an early double-figure lead at 12-2. That forced an early timeout from the Screaming Eagles with 5:59 to play in the opening frame.
All of Indiana's first 12 points, came from inside the 3-point arc. The Hoosiers' first six field goals of the game were scored by six different players, it was a balanced effort for Indiana to open the contest.
However, Indiana was quick to cool off. Southern Indiana began to employ a variation of a half court trap, which gave the Hoosiers some problems. Throughout the first 10 minutes of the game, Southern Indiana forced six Indiana turnovers.
Penn State transfer guard Shay Ciezki turned it over three times in the first quarter, however she also paced the Hoosiers in scoring. She tallied five points through the first 10 minutes of the game, connecting on her lone triple.
The Screaming Eagles closed the opening quarter on a 15-5 run, sending the game to the second quarter knotted up at 17 points apiece.
LIGHTS OUT SHOOTING PUSHS SCREAMING EAGLES TO DOUBLE-FIGURE HALFTIME LEAD
Coming into the game, the Screaming Eagles were shooting 39.2% from downtown on the season. They were averaging seven makes from distance per game entering Wednesday night's contest.
The Screaming Eagles shot just two 3-pointers, converting one of them, in the first quarter of the game. Then, in the second quarter, Southern Indiana caught fire.
The Screaming Eagles canned five of their six first half threes in the second quarter against the Hoosiers. Southern Indiana went 5-of-6 from deep in the second period, scoring more from 3-point range than Indiana did in the entire quarter.
While Indiana's defense struggled to limit a hot shooting Southern Indiana offense, the Hoosiers weren't able to find much success on the offensive end in the second quarter either. Indiana shot 4-of-17 (23.5%) from the field and 1-for-9 (11.1%) from 3-point range during the second quarter.
Between Southern Indiana's hot shooting and Indiana's poor second quarter, the Screaming Eagles held a 42-29 lead heading into the halftime intermission.
INDIANA PREVAILS AFTER BACK-AND-FORTH FINAL FRAME
Trailing by double-digits coming out of the halftime break, Indiana was in need of a run to begin the second half. That's exactly what the Hoosiers got, in large part due to Lily Meister down low.
Meister led Indiana's third quarter run, as the Hoosiers outscored the Screaming Eagles 19-9 in the frame. Meister had seven in the quarter for Indiana, going 2-for-2 from the field.
Meister was dominant inside during the third period, earning three separate trips to the charity stripe. There, she converted three of her five free throw attempts.
Down by just three entering the final frame, the Hoosiers and the Screaming Eagles traded buckets and traded stops for much of early stages of the fourth quarter.
Despite a 9-0 Indiana run coming out of the fourth quarter media timeout, that back-and-forth pattern continued throughout most of the final period.
That was until Shay Ciezki drilled a corner three to put the Hoosiers up by four points with 25.3 seconds to play. Indiana then put the game to bed at the free throw line, to come away with the 4-point win.
FINAL STATS
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