The Indiana Effect.
The pregame lines began at the doors, front and back.
First they went to Cook Hall, then Gladstein Fieldhouse, the Mellencamp Pavilion and finally all the way to Bart Kaufman Field, home of Indiana baseball.
Assembly Hall is a special place but is no stranger to these kinds of crowds. It’s built for it with a capacity of 17,222. But, in 51 years of history, it had never held a sold-out game for Indiana’s women’s basketball program.
First was last year against Purdue when Indiana clinched the Big Ten title. Next was on Thursday evening when the Hoosiers played host to the Iowa Hawkeyes and national sensation Caitlin Clark.
Where the Hawkeyes go, sellouts follow. Clark, now the all-time leading scorer in the history of the sport, is the stated reason. The “Caitlin Clark Effect,” as it’s been dubbed by countless media outlets.
She’s a dazzling player, a generational talent with elite scoring ability that puts her in the upper echelon of the sport.
But tonight wasn’t her night. It thoroughly belonged to the Hoosiers.
Those 17,000+ fans made their presence known early and often, heckling Clark and the Hawkeyes throughout the game. When she missed a shot, finishing the game 3-16 from 3-point range, the crowd erupted. When the ball failed to meet rim, which happened on two occasions, the usual “AIR-BALL” chants reached a din rivaled by few in the building’s history.
The fans may have come to see her play, but they didn’t come to sit idly by and watch her win.
If they had boos for the Hawkeyes, those fans had nothing but cheers for their Hoosiers. The two teams opened the game trading the lead back and forth throughout the first quarter, with a buzzer beater by Lexus Bargesser giving Indiana the 23-22 win.
The ball kept making its way around the court as the lead was pushed to ten halfway through the second. Each of Yarden Garzon, Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia put the ball in the hoop, each in different ways.
Three Hoosiers finished the game with at least four assists. Only two Hawkeyes, Clark and Sydney Affolter, had more than one.
The crowd stayed in it the whole way, rising when Indiana made shots or jeering when Iowa missed, the bench became active or things got chippy between both sides. There was a moment in the first half when Clark turned to the Indiana bench and exchanged words.
Garzon was called for a foul defending a Clark drive to the basket and sought out the official for an explanation. Clark, passing by, turned to her with some words.
And then missed both free throws.
On a night where the leadup was based on one star Big Ten guard, another stole the spotlight. Sara Scalia finished with a game-leading 25 points and tore the Hawkeyes to shreds coming off of screen.
When Iowa coach Lisa Bluder sat down for postgame media availability, she said as much in her opening statement.
“We didn’t have an answer for Sara Scalia,” Bluder said.
No, but that wasn’t enough. Asked about her team’s defense, she again brought up Scalia unprompted.
“I mean, she really did a great job running off screens, getting her feet set,” Bluder continued. “She set her screens up well and then when we closed out hard she beat us off the bounce. She really, really played well.”
The normally stoic Scalia let some emotion show throughout the game, culminating in a technical foul in the final minute after a made layup. Clark, meanwhile, had been subbed out and spent the final 79 seconds on the Iowa bench.
On a night Indiana needed to have, the Hoosiers rose to the occasion and then some.