No. 16 IU Caps 2023 With Big Ten Win Over Illinois

Sunday, December 31

Bloomington, Ind.

12:30 P.M. ET

Indiana University

11-1,2-0Big Ten

Illinois

6-6,0-2Big Ten

Illinois

Indiana

No. 16 IU Caps 2023 With Big Ten Win Over Illinois

12/31/2023 3:34:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Graduate student forward Mackenzie Holmes scored 30 points as No. 16 Indiana held on for a 77-71 win over Illinois on Sunday afternoon.

KEY MOMENTS

Holmes scored IU's first six points while senior guard Chloe Moore-McNeil attacked the rim to go up 8-6 at the five-minute mark in the first quarter. Moore-McNeil followed that bucket with a corner triple as sophomore guard Yarden Garzon found sophomore forward Lilly Meister open underneath the basket to go up, 13-6.
Indiana (11-1, 2-0 B1G) maintained its seven-point lead at the end of the first, 17-10, as Holmes scored eight of her 30 points in the opening 10 minutes. The Hoosier lead grew to as many as 12 in the second quarter, 31-19, as Meister's post up resulted in a pair of points.
The Fighting Illini (6-6, 0-2 B1G) clawed back in the final 2:17 of action as it cut the IU lead to 37-31 on a three-pointer at the buzzer to head in to halftime. Pushing its lead to as many as 11 with 6:15 in the third quarter Indiana scored just two field goals in the rest of the frame as Illinois came within two, 49-47, at the end of three.
A Holmes bucket and senior guard Sydney Parrish 3-pointer pushed the lead to a two-score game early in the fourth quarter. However, Illinois would push back and tie the game all before the 7:45 mark as Moore-McNeil broke the tie on a wide-open baseline 3-pointer with 5:45 remaining.
Holmes would score 13 points in the fourth quarter alone, as she scored 11 points down the stretch including a reverse under the bucket layup with 1:06 remaining. Coming out of a timeout with 41.2 to play, Indiana's baseline out of bounds play was successful finding sophomore guard Yarden Garzon on the right baseline as she put the game back to two-possessions, 71-67.

NOTABLE

Holmes finished the day with 30 points on 10-for-14 shooting as she also went 10-for-12 at the line. It marked the fifth 30-point game of her career.
Three players have now scored 30 or more points in three-straight games – Garzon (30), Scalia (32) and Holmes (30).
Holmes tied Parrish with a team-high seven rebounds.
Moore-McNeil with a season-high 17 points by going 7-for-11 from the floor. She also added three assists and a steal.
Garzon also finished in double figures with 12 points and a had a team-high five assists.
Indiana shot 51.9 percent in the win, also combining for 17 assists on 27 made shots.
A crowd of 11,600 fans were on hand to see the win, the largest this season and the fifth-highest single attended game in school history.

QUOTABLE
Indiana head coach Teri Moren
"What a great crowd, 11,000, and I tell them all the time, hopefully they're listening, they get us to the to the finish line with their energy that they give us. They know when to cheer they know when we need in the most, and we're so grateful, once again, that they spent some of their New Year's Eve day with us and they're so important to the success that we've had. Grace Berger being here was certainly a special moment for us, we hadn't seen Grace for some time, so just being able to present her with her ring. The applause that she got was no doubt well deserved, but just special for her to be back. She and Keyanna Warthen were we're here today and anytime your alums come back it's a special thing because they've helped build this program. It was great to have them here, I thought spectators got to watch to a great Big Ten game this afternoon against two very competitive teams, player for player. (Makira) Cooks was cooking today. Mack(enzie Holmes) was special for us and I'm going to tell you, we need Chloe Moore-McNeil to continue to put pressure on the defense the way she did today and those shots for Sara (Scalia) are going to fall, the shots for Syd(ney Parrish) are going to fall. Yarden (Garzon) impacts the game in a lot of different ways but you know when we can have Chloe be as aggressive as she was today that will only help our basketball team. I'm really proud of you what she was able to do today for us. Statistically, I'm never happy with 16 turnovers and we got out rebounded, but you have to find other way you know to win games. You might have game goals and you fall short, but you find other ways to win games. Just sidenote with Sara and Syd that struggled today and the conversation is there's so many ways that you can still impact the game when your shots not falling. Whether that's rebounding, playing the stingy defense that we need, assist, setting great screens, your body language; all that matters when you're struggling. I thought that Syd especially showed great enthusiasm and energy for her team. She might not be shooting a great but she right now, but she is a great shooter and I continue to say that and then we know Sara what she's capable of, but Sara is going to get everybody's best. She's too good of a shooter to not and we're going to have to figure out other ways that we can get her loose, but overall you know we're happy that we got out of here with a win today to sort of restart the Big Ten season."

UP NEXT
The homestand wraps up on Thursday when Michigan visits Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at 7 p.m. ET on BTN.

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