Indiana's toughness shines with win over Tennessee in heavyweight battle

The theme of this Indiana program going into Monday's nights game was finishing in these moments on a big stage against a national powerhouse. It had come up on the short end recently but IU head coach Teri Moren was looking to change that narrative on Monday.

They did, as the Hoosiers went into Knoxville and defeated No. 11 Tennessee 79-67. Indiana, now 3-0 on the young season, showed the type of grit and toughness teams need in order to win these types of games, yes, but also to be a team that can make a run in March.

“I can’t even tell you of how proud I am of our group tonight," Moren said postgame. "... We knew that we it was going to be a tale of two really good teams going at it. We are on the road, so we expected the hostile environment that was here tonight. Really, really happy with how we handled ourselves."

It was a total team effort for Indiana, with five Hoosiers in double-figures. Led by Mackenzie Holmes with 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting and 10 rebounds and Sara Scalia (16 points), the Hoosiers took the lead early and never gave it up after, holding the lead for 37:27 of game action.

Indiana got out to a 16-point lead midway through the third quarter but like great programs do, Tennessee didn't go away. Tennessee used a big run down the stretch to keep it within striking distance, just an eight-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

That's when Indiana leaned on its All-American duo of Holmes and Grace Berger. Holmes would have eight of her 16 points in the fourth quarter, while Berger's toughness spread throughout the team.

"We just kinda took advantage of the matchups," Holmes said. "My teammates just kept finding in good situations."

"I wasn't wondering how tough -- I guess I was wondering how tough of a group we have because we have so many new faces," Moren said. "I thought Grace Berger, she's our leader, we are going to be a team that is just going to play off of her toughness... She's just so even-keel and I thought her composure was just tremendous tonight."

Berged added 13 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 38 minutes. Chloe Moore-McNeil had 15 points and Sydney Parrish had 13 off of the bench.The Hoosiers shot 44.4 percent from the field and went 15-of-18 from the free throw line.

"One thing I noticed when I look at the stat sheet is how even-keeled our scoring is," Holmes added. "We were sharing the ball and we have a lot of unselfish girls on our team, and that means a lot of people have the potential to score a lot of points in bunches."

While the scoring was there late, it was the defense and rebounding that got Indiana into position to win. Tennessee was held to just 39.3 percent from the field and was even out rebounded by Indiana 35-33.

"The rebounding was going to be the key tonight. We outrebounded them by two," Moren said. "I don’t care if that is one or two, we outrebounded Tennessee and that was the most important key to the game tonight.”

Indiana isn't done with these types of matchups against top programs in the country. It has two other power-five matchups in the non-conference before a showdown against North Carolina on Dec. 1 -- currently one spot behind IU at No. 13 in the country.

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