Berger’s Double-Double Paces No. 20 Indiana In Win Over Minnesota

Monday, January 27

Bloomington, Ind.

6 PM

Indiana University

16-5,6-3Big Ten

Minnesota

12-8,2-7Big Ten

Minnesota

Indiana

Berger’s Double-Double Paces No. 20 Indiana In Win Over Minnesota

1/27/2020 8:55:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Highlights Photo Gallery Coach Moren postgame Players postgame

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Sophomore guard Grace Berger notched her first career double-double as No. 20 Indiana defeated Minnesota, 65-62.

KEY MOMENTS

The Hoosiers (16-5, 6-3 B1G) tried to play catch-up in the first as it could never get closer than three as a feed from Patberg to Allen underneath made it 12-9 with 2:15 to play.
Patberg's pull-up at the buzzer kept the deficit to three, 14-11, at the end of the quarter.
IU lit up in the second as sophomore guard Grace Berger scored all 10 of her first half points in the frame.
A 6-0 run gave Indiana its first lead with 6:27 to go. It also marked the start Berger's own run as she scored 18-straight points that lasted until the 6:58 mark of the third quarter.
After the Gophers (12-8, 2-7 B1G) cut the lead to one with just over six to go, Indiana was sparked by a pair of buckets from redshirt junior guard Jaelynn Penn. The Hoosier defense held Minnesota without a field goal in the final 3:41 of the third and went up nine, 48-39.
IU took advantage of bonus free throws in the final quarter, as it went 15-for-18 from the line in the final frame.

NOTABLE

Sophomore guard Grace Berger led the Hoosiers as she tallied a career-high 25 points. Berger had a stretch where she scored 18 straight points for the Hoosiers. Over that stretch she made eight field goals in a row. Berger has scored 20 or more points in two of her last three games.
It also marked the Louisville, Ky. native's first double-double of the season with a team-high 11 rebounds.
With the win the Hoosiers have now won five of the last six games against Minnesota.
Minnesota came into the game scoring 73.9 points per game, but the Indiana defense held the Golden Gophers to 52 points.
The Hoosiers held Minnesota to 19-of-58 (32.8 percent) from the field and 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) from 3-point range.
Indiana has now held opponents under 60 points in 14 of their 21 games.
Berger, Penn and redshirt junior guard Ali Patberg scored 51 of the Hoosiers 65 points in the game. Penn recorded 15 points and Patberg tallied 11 points.
Indiana connected on 20-of-24 (83.3 percent) from the free-throw line, hitting 20 or more free throws in their fourth-straight game.
IU also won the battle of the boards, 40-33.

QUOTABLE
Indiana head coach Teri Moren
"It was a great win. We will face them again in February up at "The Barn". Whatever Grace Berger had to drink tonight we need to bottle that up and make sure that we have that on the menu. We face another good opponent in Wisconsin. I thought she was tremendous tonight. Just looking at her stats she was 5-of-6 from the free throw line and had 25 points and 11 rebounds. That's not a bad night for a sophomore. I am happy to see that for her. I thought we had moments where Jaelynn Penn was really hard to guard off of the bounce. Ali Patberg was 4-for-11. I thought that she pushed the pace for us and did a bunch of good things. Defensively, they are still working some things out. Being able to guard off the bounce was so much better. We have better rim protection and that is what we have to continue to rep every single day in practice as we move forward. I suspected that Minnesota would change their lineup tonight and play smaller for the same reason. They were going to try to beat us off of the bounce. There for a minute (Taiye) Bello got a hot start. I thought they were just going to pound the ball inside. As play went on, I thought we did a better job on her, but those guards are shifty and quick right down main street. Right down the rails. There were moments where we didn't do a good enough job, so we have to continue to improve in that area."

UP NEXT
Indiana returns to the Hall on Thursday night when it faces Wisconsin in the Breast Cancer Awareness Game. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.

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