A combination of rust and a major void at center meant Indiana couldn’t keep up with No. 6 Michigan on Monday evening.
Coming off a 15-day layoff and playing without leading scorer and rebounder Mackenzie Holmes, the No. 5 Hoosiers fell 65-50 in Ann Arbor in a top-10 showdown.
A disastrous third quarter that saw Indiana score just six points created one too many deficits to overcome.
“Disappointed that we didn’t play very well tonight,” head coach Teri Moren said. “We’re not a program that makes excuses, but I do think we looked like a team that had been off for a couple weeks and looked really rusty and had no real rhythm, no fluidity in anything we did offensively.”
Indiana (14-3, 6-1) shot just 33.3 percent from the field including just 21.4 percent from three.
Aggressive defensive pressure allowed IU to tie the game after falling behind by 10 in the first quarter. They trailed again by nine in the second quarter before pulling to within two at halftime. Indiana forced 25 Michigan turnovers for the game including 17 in the first half.
“I loved our effort defensively,” Moren said. “We’re not a pressing team and we felt like in order for us to stay in the game we had to do some different things and I loved how hard we played.”
Without Holmes, Michigan star Naz Hillmon went for 21 points and Michigan owned an incredible 52-20 rebounding margin.
The loss ended several streaks for the Hoosiers. It was their first Big Ten loss of the season, and winnings streaks of 12-games on the road, 15-games in the league, and nine-games overall were snapped.
“I know my group better than anybody, we’ll bounce back and we’re going to be better because of the experience we had here tonight,” Moren said.
NOTABLE
- Nicole Cardaño-Hillary scored a team-high 16 points, and added eight steals, five rebounds and two assists. Her eight steals ties her for fourth most in a game in school history as she finished just one swipe shy of the single game record.
- Joining her in double figures included Grace Berger (13 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists) and graduate student guard Ali Patberg (10 points).
UP NEXT
The Hoosiers return home to host Minnesota on Thursday night. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.
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