Penn Scores Career-High To Guide Hoosiers Past UT Martin in WNIT First Round

Thursday, March 15

Bloomington, IN

7 p.m. ET

Indiana University

18-14

UT Martin

19-15

UT Martin

Indiana

Penn Scores Career-High To Guide Hoosiers Past UT Martin in WNIT First Round

3/15/2018 10:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Final Box (PDF)Photo Gallery

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Freshman guard Jaelynn Penn scored a career-high 25 points as she guided Indiana to a 74-50 win over UT Martin in the first round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament on Thursday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Penn shot 8-for-12 from the floor and 6-for-7 from the free throw line to go along with a 3-for-5 clip from beyond the arc. She also collected six boards, dished out three assists and picked up two steals. Three other Hoosiers scored in double figures with seniors Amanda Cahill and Tyra Buss adding 14 points each. Cahill finished with a team-high nine rebounds while Buss added three assists and also took over sole possession of most points scored in a single season, suprassing Karna Abrams's 642 points. Buss has now scored 650 points this season.

Junior forward Kym Royster went a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor to also add 10 points. Freshman guard Bendu Yeaney chipped in seven points and five rebounds along with a team-high four assists. On the night, Indiana shot over 50 percent for the seventh game this season, going 54 percent from the floor and 72.2 percent from the free throw line.

UT Martin (19-15) shot just 38.5 percent from the floor and were led by sophomore guard Kendall Spray with 18 points. Junior guard Myah Taylor also added 10 points for the Skyhawks.

The game opened with a pair of 7-0 runs by each team as Penn stopped the run with a jumper in the lane while a steal from Buss led to a transition layup to go up 11-7 with 5:25 to play. Cahill pushed the lead back up to six on a triple while Buss extended the lead at the buzzer with a floater in the lane to go up 23-14 after one quarter.

UTM would hang around in the second, taking the advantage in the quarter 22-18. They would cut the deficit down to as few as two, 25-23, as it opened up the second on a 6-2 run. But Penn would score five of her nine points in the next two possessions to bring the margin back up to seven, 30-23, with 6:33 to play. A pick by freshman guard Keyanna Warthen and a coast-to-coast layup pushed the lead back up to six but UT Martin had the final say with a layup with six seconds left in the half to make it a 41-36 score at the break.

IU would use a big third quarter to really put the game away, as Cahill would open up the third on a 3-point play less than two minutes in. It would spark a 12-0 run as UTM wouldn't score in the frame until midway through the quarter as Indiana went up 52-36. In all, the Hoosiers would win the quarter 20-7 as Penn scored eight more while Cahill added six in the third quarter. Leading 61-43 going into the fourth quarter, IU continued to stretch its lead with Cahill putting the exclamation on the game with her soft touch in the lane with 2:30 to go and up by 20 points.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Teri Moren
"I just want to start off by thanking our fans. It's a Thursday night during spring break and it climbed to, I think, 55 today outside. There was an opportunity for our fans to find themselves doing other things, and they chose to come out and support us tonight in a big way. I am just real grateful to Hoosier Nation, our fans and that they came out tonight to support us. Hopefully, that crowd will increase on Sunday at 2 p.m. here. I though the game, especially the first half, offensively both teams shot in the high 40s. I thought offensively it was a clean game at the beginning because of the low turnovers on both teams. We had a few mishaps defensively, especially in the first half when you're trying to go under all screens with (Kendall) Spray. We left her going under screens and gave her two three's there. I thought that (Myah Taylor) came in the first half and warmed up for them. We made a few adjustments in the second half, but really proud of our efficiency. I thought it was good for the most part, but we had moments where we came up empty on the offensive end. I though after almost a two-week period that we had off, we had an opportunity to look a little rustier. I felt like we looked like we hadn't played in a week and a half or two."

NOTABLE

The Hoosiers improve to 13-8 all-time in their ninth overall appearance in the WNIT. Indiana has now posted a record of 10-3 in WNIT games at home.
Indiana improves to 5-0 in the all-time series against UT Martin.
With her basket at the 34 second mark of the first quarter, senior guard Tyra Buss set a new Indiana record for single season scoring. Buss now has 654 points this season and broke the previous record of 642 by Karna Abram in the 1984-85 season.
With 14 points in the game, Buss increased her career scoring record to 2,255 points. Buss also connected on her 600^th made free-throw of her career and improved her school record for career free-throws to 604.
Freshman guard Jaelynn Penn led the Hoosiers with a career-high 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including the Hoosiers first nine points of the second quarter. Penn connected on six of her first seven shots from the field and scored 16 points in the first half.
Senior forward Amanda Cahill scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Cahill increased her career scoring total to 1,815, which ranks seventh all-time.
Cahill connected on three 3-pointers and moved into the Hoosiers top-3 in career 3-pointers. She now has 192 which ranks third all-time.
Cahill now has 1,080 career rebounds, 260 this season. Cahill's 260 rebounds this season ranks 10^th in the IU record books for single season rebounds.
Indiana shot 17-of-30 (56.7 percent) in the first half of the game and 27-of-50 (54 percent) from the field for the game.
The Hoosiers opened the second half with an 11-0 run and held UT Martin without a field goal until the 5:48 mark of the third quarter. Indiana outscored UT Martin 20-7 in the third quarter.
The Hoosiers closed the game on a 12-0 run and held UT Martin without a point for the final 5:07 of the game.
Indiana outscored UT Martin 33-14 in the second half.
Indiana outscored UT Martin 19-0 in fast break points.

UP NEXT
The Hoosiers will host WNIT second round action on Sunday at 2 p.m. when it hosts Milwaukee at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Follow Indiana Women's Basketball on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

#GoIU