BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Thursday night, Indiana women's basketball kicked off its 43rd season at home against Eastern Illinois. Dominating from start to finish, the Hoosiers came out on top over the Panthers 96-43.
Two longtime Hoosiers reached career milestones in the dominant season-opening win.
Head coach Teri Moren notched her 400th career win and graduate forward Mackenzie Holmes moved into third place on Indiana's all-time scoring list.
"I just found out yesterday that I was that close," Moren said postgame. "That stuff I don't pay attention to. The only focus I had was this being our opener and it being Eastern Illinois and us getting off to a good start."
"It's great," Moren later said. "Hopefully there's more in the future. I think it reminds me off all the great stops and all the great players that I've had the opportunity to coach."
In her 10 seasons as the head coach for Indiana, Moren has led the Hoosiers to five NCAA Tournament births, including two sweet sixteens and an elite eight. Under Moren, Indiana has won 20-plus games in eight consecutive seasons.
"It's always special when you can do it with a group that you feel close to," Moren said. "This is just one of the things that we can check off and move forward."
Last year, the Seymour, Indiana native won Big Ten Coach of the Year and was named the program's first AP National Coach of the Year.
Moren is already Indiana women's basketball's all-time winningest head coach, a feat she accomplished in a win over Illinois in January of last season.
Coming into Thursday night's matchup with Eastern Illinois, Holmes -- the first preseason All-American in Indiana history -- sat fourth on Indiana's all-time scoring chart with 1,897 career points.
With 1:29 left on the first half clock, Holmes scored her 13th and 14th points of the night on a right handed layup. The layup moved Holmes past Karna Abram.
"I'm not surprised," Lexus Bargesser said. "'Mac,' she's a great player, we know that. We know we can rely on her (to score)."
After finishing with 19 points on the night, Holmes is just two points shy of passing Denise Jackson for second on the Hoosiers' all-time scoring list.
"We can always throw the ball to her to score," Yarden Garzon said. "She makes everyone better on the court and she's a great leader too off the court."
At some point during her fifth season of college basketball, Holmes is expected to pass Tyra Buss and become Indiana's all-time leading score.
Sitting at 1,916 points after Thursday's win over Eastern Illinois, Holmes is 448 points behind Buss and needs to average 16.6 points across the Hoosiers' final 27 regular season games to pass her.
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