Defense Rallies In Indiana Women's Basketball NCAA First Round Victory

By Pete DiPrimio

IUHoosiers.com

Sometimes you just have to throttle an offense. Sometimes, if you're the Indiana Hoosiers playing amid NCAA tourney opening pressure, you have do what you do best, which is defend as if your season depends on it.

Which, in fact, it does.

Case in point -- 13^th-seed VCU (16-11) which spent the first half of Monday's game positioned for a potential upset and the final 20 minutes wondering what happened.

"Defensively, we were locked in," IU coach Teri Moren said after a 63-32 victory at the University of Texas San Antonio Convention Center.

Consider no Big Ten team had ever held an NCAA tourney opponent to 32 points until the fourth-seeded Hoosiers (19-5) squeezed the life out of Golden Ram attack. The margin of victory was the largest ever by IU in this event.

"Our kids know who they are and they know why we've won the amount of games that we've been able to win this year," Moren said. "We work extremely hard on the defensive end. We embrace that. We love that. That's who we'll continue to be. That's all I know."

IU outscored VCU 41-15 after halftime -- 22-3 down the stretch -- in ruthless a display of defensive intensity that bodes well for Wednesday's second-round game against 12^th-seeded Belmont (an upset 64-59 winner over fifth-seed Gonzaga) and perhaps more.

"We just dug in on defense," guard Grace Berger said. "That's something we haven't done in the past."

Yes, the Hoosiers have done it in the past, but with the memory of an upset Big Ten tourney loss to Michigan State still fresh despite an 11-day break, perspective had a motivational value.

"We didn't do it at the Big Ten Tournament," Berger said, "so it's nice to see us learn from our mistakes."

Berger paced the Hoosiers with 20 points, eight rebounds and two assists. Guard Ali Patberg had 17 points. Forward Mackenzie Holmes had 14 points and five blocks. Forward Aleksa Gulbe had 10 rebounds and seven points.

"The mid-range was open," Berger said. "That's my go-to shot. If I have a mid-range that's open, I'm going to take it."

IU led 16-11 after the first quarter and 21-17 at halftime. You might have thought that would warrant a ramp-up-the-offense strategy to the second half.

You'd have thought wrong.

These Hoosiers, who pushed into the top 10 for the first time in program history in a season full of firsts, had a different approach with their halftime message.

"If we get stops on defense," Berger said about the second-half plan, "that will lead to momentum on offense and some easy run-outs, easy baskets."

Did it ever.

"We kind of got into a rhythm," Berger added in understatement.

Berger was the first half IU offense with 13 points. She kept IU in the game when baskets came grudgingly when they came at all.

"Our goal, and my goal individually," Berger said, "was to get it going on offense early. That didn't necessarily happen for us as a team."

The rough start was expected, Moren said, given the long layoff between games.

"I thought we figured out some things in the second half. Our ball movement was much better.

"You come out in the first half of the NCAA Tournament and you're pressing, man, because you want to do everything right. I think we were guilty of that. In the second half we were so much better."

Because they were, the Hoosiers reached the second round for just the fourth time in program history. The others were in 1983, 2016 and '19.

They have never reached the third round, and yes, they are aware.

They face a potential Sweet Sixteen matchup with the region's top seed North Carolina State (21-2). The other top seeds are UConn (25-1), Stanford (26-2) and South Carolina (23-4).

"I believe in this group so much," Moren said. "We have some momentum that I think will carry over."

Indiana University Athletics

Defense Rallies In Indiana Women's Basketball NCAA First Round Victory

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Players Mentioned

Grace Berger

Aleksa Gulbe

Mackenzie Holmes

Ali Patberg

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