Indiana Tops Minnesota for Fifth Straight Win

Thursday, February 18

Bloomington, Ind.

7 pm

Indiana University

18-9, 10-5

MINNESOTA

18-8, 10-5

Minnesota

Indiana

2/18/2016 9:51:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Tori Ziege, IUHoosiers.com | Twitter

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tyra Buss excelled on the track in high school before coming to Indiana to play basketball. But that didn't stop the sophomore guard from burning Minnesota in transition, providing Indiana velocity in its most important contest to date. Her speedy buckets led her to a team-high 27 points as they raced to a 93-79 win and to third place in the Big Ten standings.

"That's Tyra being Tyra," head coach Teri Moren said. "She just doesn't slow down."

Though Buss continued to fight off a cold during the game that has lingered over the past month and that kept her out of practice Monday and Tuesday, it wasn't detectable in her speed or her productivity. She added nine rebounds to her scoring and three steals which she took to the races in the second quarter to pull Indiana ahead for an uncatchable lead.

When she wasn't scoring in transition, Buss was floating passes to her teammates half way down the court. Her seven assists helped create offense for players such as junior center Jenn Anderson, who tied a season-high 18 points, and junior guard Alexis Gassion, who followed with 16.

"Our best offense is when we are running," Buss said. "We truly believe that. Everyone just did a really good job of getting out, and I found them on the lanes."

Following a Sunday performance in which she limited Nebraska's Nicole Bauman to eight points, Gassion once again flexed her defensive muscles guarding the opponent's leading scorer in Minnesota's Rachel Banham, holding her to nine first-half points.

Though Banham would steamroll for 20 second-half points to hit her per game average, she couldn't single-handedly outgain four Hoosiers in double digits, and eight scorers overall.

Gassion never allowed her to get into rhythm when she was on the floor.

"Not only do the coaches have a lot of confidence in her, we had a lot of confidence in her," Buss said. "I don't care if Rachel Banham had 29 points, it was a tough 29 points."

With 46 seconds still remaining in the third quarter, Minnesota's Karley Barnes fouled out. She was the first casualty in a foul-heavy game that troubled both teams in the final period, most notably Indiana's sophomore forward Amanda Cahill and Gassion, who had four personals apiece in the early stages of the fourth quarter.

With Cahill and Gassion on the bench, Minnesota (18-8, 10-5) was temporarily able to pull within three late in the fourth quarter. Gassion stymied that comeback, however, when she fired off five quick points to lead the Indiana (18-9, 10-5) down the stretch for its 10th conference win.

It was the revenge Gassion talked about getting leading into Thursday's opening tip.

"It felt great," she said. "There's no other words for it."

For the first time since 1982-83, the Hoosiers have won five straight Big Ten games.

They'll hit the road for a two-game stretch at Iowa and at Nebraska, who they beat at home just two weeks previous, before returning to Assembly Hall in hopes of closing out the season a perfect 14-0 at home and cementing their double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

"Everyone (in the Big Ten) is big," Moren said. "Is there momentum? Sure. Is there confidence? Absolutely. But we have to be able to shoot the ball better in someone else's gym."