The Hoosiers advance to the Round of 32.
Indiana women’s basketball advanced to the round of 32 with an 89-56 win over Fairfield on Saturday afternoon. They’ll take on the winner of Oklahoma vs. Florida Gulf Coast on Monday.
This was an interesting one. Fairfield had a different style of play than you usually see around the Big Ten and there were plenty of pregame storylines.
Fairfield
The Stags had an incredible regular season run, losing just one game in total before bulldozing through the MAC. When seeds were announced, their record drew questions about where they were placed.
Then a 25-point spread came out.
Fairfield is a very, very good mid-major team. It obliterated Rutgers on the road and the record speaks for itself. It’s also a very specific type of team.
The stags play with speed, listing players as guards and “road runners” instead of forwards. They want to push the ball down the floor, get a look or use that momentum to drive to the rim, not really a lot of post-ups.
Janelle Brown is an incredible player and it was plain to see. She brought some serious heat on defense, used her speed off the bounce to get to the rim and got a few shots off from 3.
And, to the Stags’ credit, they finished the first half down just 38-34.
The Halftime Conversation
Indiana has been pretty open about how halftimes usually go down.
It’s not just Teri Moren getting in front of the team, she’s asking for players’ opinions in a collective effort to improve in the second half.
There’s a whiteboard in the Hoosiers locker room for every player to get their thoughts out there, what they’re doing well, what’s not going well and how they can adjust. Chloe Moore-McNeil wrote that she’d need to prevent Brown from getting any more second chance points.
Fairfield’s style and speed weren’t issues, Moren said, Indiana wants to play fast too. She was more worried about getting back on defense and shots not falling.
Moren made the decision to start switching 1-5 in the second half, something Indiana doesn’t typically do. This included Mackenzie Holmes, who was also charged with protecting the rim for the Hoosiers.
The Spread
As stated before, the spread rose a few eyebrows heading into the game considering Fairfield’s record. And at halftime, it looked like a mistake. The Stags gave Indiana some real trouble, especially getting to the rim and knocking down shots from long range.
What they lacked in size, they made up for in physicality and energy. Indiana wanted to get the ball to Holmes, who had a considerable size advantage alongside her usual footwork and touch around the rim, but the Stags put heat on the perimeter to keep the ball out of the paint.
And, again, for a while it worked. Then Sara Scalia happened.
The second half began with a few traded buckets with Holmes getting looks at the rim and Scalia getting open from deep. Then she got out running and was all but unstoppable getting to the rim or charity stripe.
Indiana blew the game wide open. Fairfield had nothing on offense and could only watch as 3s soared overhead and the Hoosiers went on runs. The final score ended up being 89-56, comfortably covering aforementioned spread.
Indiana was up by four at the half and covered a 25-point spread with 8 points in change. Much of the bench got minutes in the fourth, but Indiana still won the quarter 25-7. It was the second highest scoring quarter of the game, right after Indiana in the third.
When their back is against the wall, Indiana is going to find a way.