2/13/2022 basketball Edit

IU women win at home over Michigan State

Haley Strusiner • TheHoosier

Staff Writer

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Bloomington, Ind. – The Indiana Hoosiers improve their overall record to 18-3 and 10-1 within the Big Ten Conference, as they defeated the Michigan State Spartans, 76-58, on Saturday.

Senior guard Grace Berger scored 29 points, setting a new career-high for points. She shot 9-for-17 and was 11-of-11 from the free-throw line. She also had seven rebounds and three assists.

Berger has now scored in double-figures in points in 18 out of 21 games this year.

“I was definitely feeling it a little bit," Berger stated. “I saw a couple of my pull-ups go in, and easy drives to the basket. I think anytime I can see the ball go in, maybe it makes me a little more aggressive.

"Then Coach Moren, Ali, and Nikki were great about calling plays to get me the ball and position made it easy for me to score. My teammates and my coaches put me in a really easy position to knock down some shots.”

Berger brought the high momentum into the third quarter, scoring 17 points, part of her 21-point second-half effort that helped her set the new career-high

“I think I just came out really aggressive,” Berger explained. “I saw the ball go into the basket early and I think that was really all of us. They got on us a little bit at halftime, just to keep being aggressive and were gonna see shots fall. So I think our mindset coming out into the third quarter was to get an early lead and never let it go. We all just came out with an aggressive mindset and I think I benefitted from that and my teammates did too.”

Aleksa Gulbe scored 13 points, six rebounds and three blocks. This was her fourth consecutive game that she had scored in double figures. Ali Patberg scored 12 points, Nicole Cardaño-Hillary scored 12 points and Chloe Moore-McNeil scored 10 points coming off the bench.

“I thought there were a lot of good things, seven turnovers today, which is excellent, git to the free-throw line, which always makes me happy,” Head Coach Teri Moren stated. “KB (Kiandra Brown), you look at her stats, she doesn’t have a basket, however, she has two major big-time charges for us, rebounds the ball for us, had that nice kick out that ended up in a three.”

As a team, the Hoosiers shot 43.6 percent from the floor, 24-for-55, 35 percent from the 3-point line, 7-for-20, and 77.78 percent from the foul line, 21-for-27.

Indiana had 33 total rebounds, 10 assists and had just seven turnovers.

“Great win against an opponent that just knocked off Michigan the other night, so give our kids credit for showing up in a big kind of way and getting a big win today,” Moren stated.

Up next, the Indiana Hoosiers will travel to Nebraska and take on the Cornhuskers Monday night. The tip-off is set for 7 P.M. ET and will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network.