No. 2/3 N.C. State is in Bloomington with revenge on their minds.
Thursday’s matchup between No. 6 Indiana and the Wolfpack will be a rematch of the 2021 NCAA Sweet Sixteen meeting between the two programs where the No. 4 Hoosiers upset the No. 1 seeded Wolfpack 73-70, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. IU guard Ali Patberg led the Hoosiers in the win with 17 points.
This time the top-10 teams will meet at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall as part of the Big Ten / ACC Challenge (7 p.m. / ESPN2). Both squads are fresh off trips to The Bahamas.
The Hoosiers (5-1) split games with then No. 7/5 Stanford and Miami (FL) at the Pink Flamingo Championship in Nassau. Patberg paced the Hoosiers, averaging 16.0 points and went 47.8 percent from the field and 80 percent at the line in the event.
NC State (6-1) won twice in the Pink Flamingo Championship with double-digit wins over Maryland and Washington State. They are led by senior center and preseason ACC Player of the Year Elisa Cunane (14.4 ppg., 7.4 rgp.) and transfer guard Diamond Johnson (13.3 ppg., 3.1 apg.). The Wolfpack are averaging 80.3 points per game and shooting 48.6 percent from the floor.
Junior forward Mackenzie Holmes leads the way for IU through six games, averaging a team-high 15.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. All five starters are also averaging double figures including 13.8 points per game each from Patberg and senior guard Grace Berger.
Indiana enters the Big Ten/ACC Challenge with an all-time record of 8-5 and 3-3 in games played at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers and Wolfpack have met once before in the series, an 84-70 loss in Raleigh in 2017.
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