The most normal game played by an Indiana team on 2/27/24.
No. 14 Indiana women’s basketball completed its season sweep of Northwestern earlier tonight with a 84-64 at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The win improves the Hoosiers’ record to 23-4 and 14-3 in the Big Ten.
Here’s three things:
Mackenzie Holmes: Efficiency Queen
Indiana’s all-time leading scorer attempted 13 shots tonight. She made 12 of them.
Holmes dropped 28 points off a season-best 92.3% shooting and moved into second in the country in field goal percentage (66.6%) with the effort.
“Mack” also finished one rebound shy of her sixth double-double of the season and almost surely would’ve gotten it had the game not been so lopsided. Lilly Meister took all of Indiana’s fourth quarter post minutes and continued to play efficiently in her own right.
Parrish pulls ‘em down
After missing seven games with a foot injury, senior guard Sydney Parrish is fully back on the glass for Indiana.
Parrish got her first post-injury game action last Monday against Illinois and returned to the starting lineup Thursday versus Iowa. She played well versus the Hawkeyes, and hit a pair of huge threes, but reasserted herself as one of Indiana’s top rebounders tonight.
The Former Indiana Miss Basketball notched her third double-double of the year with ten rebounds and eleven points in 25 minutes on the floor.
Parrish was on an absolute heater before getting hurt is returning to said form at just the right time. Her ability to win off the glass and do the dirty work will forever go underappreciated. Such an important player.
What next?
Indiana will close the regular season (and look to stay perfect at home on the year) with Senior Day on Sunday versus Maryland.
After that the Hoosiers will turn their attention to the conference tournament which is set to run from March 6-10 in Minneapolis.
Indiana has clinched a double bye and will almost certainly end up being the No. 2 or 3 seed— but the top spot and a share of the Big Ten title aren’t out of the question.
The double bye ensures the Hoosiers will not make their tourney debut until Friday. Most of the league still has two regular season games left, so the bracket is subject to change, but as of now Indiana would be the 2-seed and face the winner of 7-Maryland/10-Minnesota.
Then, assuming it (and Iowa) take care of business, Indiana would face the Hawkeyes in the semifinals and have a chance at another quality win for it’s NCAA Tournament resume.
The top 4 seeds in each quadrant serve as host sites in the first and second rounds and ESPN current has the Hoosiers as a 4.
An appearance in the BTT Championship would, in my eyes, lock up hosting duties for Indiana but Teri Moren’s side cannot overlook Maryland and their quarterfinal opponent first. Any sort of seed swapping that puts Indiana in line with Illinois, Michigan State, or Penn State, could make things interesting though.