IU Ends Non-Conference with Win over Yale

Monday, December 28

Bloomington, Ind.

7 pm

Indiana University

8-4

YALE

8-6

Yale

Indiana

12/28/2015 9:14:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana completed its non-conference schedule with a near wire-to-wire 76-60 win against Yale at Assembly Hall on Monday.

The Hoosiers shot 54 percent from the field—including an efficient 7-of-10 from beyond the arc—and finished with four different players in double-digit scoring. Seven of the nine players who took the floor for IU scored at least five points.

Junior guard Alexis Gassion stayed hot offensively with 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting and is now averaging 15.5 points per game over her last four games. Sophomore forward Amanda Cahill posted her second double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds, extending her streak of consecutive games with double-figure scoring to five.

"It's a good win," head coach Teri Moren said. "Overall, obviously we're out of here with a win tonight, but Big Ten starts in a couple days and we've got to clean up a lot of things."

Indiana started the second half with 11 consecutive points to turn a seven-point lead into an 18-point advantage after seven first-quarter turnovers slowed the Hoosiers down early on. IU's 16 turnovers concerned Moren, who stressed her team needed to cut down mistakes and commit to finding a defensive identity to compete in the Big Ten.

Sophomore guard Jess Walter, Gassion and Cahill combined to hit back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers over 78 seconds in that stretch to break open the game before the first media timeout in the third quarter.

"We just had a lot of momentum going," Gassion said. "We had the crowd going, benches going. Everybody was behind us. It just felt good. Shots looked good and were falling."

It was only the beginning of a dominant third quarter for the Hoosiers, who led for all but 50 seconds.

Indiana (8-4) outscored Yale (8-6) 26-16 in the third stanza after leading by seven points at halftime. IU's lead was never threatened after pulling away by a few possessions midway through the opening quarter.

"Coming out of the half, we were just being aggressive," Cahill said. "I think we were trying to tighten up both on the defensive end and have tighter passes on the offensive end. That led to less turnovers and led to more baskets, so that was something we could take advantage of."

Walter made her fifth collegiate start and first of the season after exclusively coming off of the bench up until Monday's game. She had been steadily working her way back into the rotation after suffering a head injury just days before the season began.

Walter assisted on fellow sophomore guard Tyra Buss' 3-pointer to open up Indiana's scoring and finished with five points in 23 minutes of work, tying a season-high for playing time.

"That 3-guard spot has been sort of an interesting spot for us," Moren said. "Sometimes juggling things up, mixing things up is never a bad thing."

Indiana completed its non-conference schedule 8-4 with the win, including a perfect 5-0 mark at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers will head to Madison, Wis., to open Big Ten play against the Badgers on Thursday as winners of five of their last seven games.

At its surface, Indiana's non-conference record doesn't appear as strong as last year's 10-1 mark, but the Hoosiers insist they're more prepared for conference play this season thanks to a tougher non-conference schedule. IU has been tested early this season against a schedule that included other Power Five conference opponents, NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago and frequent trips away from the comforts of Assembly Hall.

"I think it's done nothing but prepare us," Cahill said. "We had a lot of harder games this year compared to last year. I think this will really help us in the endgame of the Big Ten, which is the main goal."