No. 14 Indiana Women Beat Northwestern 84-64 in Road Finale, Mackenzie Holmes Scores 28

No. 14 Indiana women's basketball (23-4, 14-3) traveled to play at Northwestern (8-20, 3-14) Tuesday night and won comfortably. Mackenzie Holmes led with 28 points and nine rebounds, while Sydney Parrish secured her third double-double of the season.

No. 14 Indiana women’s basketball trounced Northwestern 84-64 on the road Tuesday night to move into sole possession of second place in the Big Ten. Should No. 2 Ohio State win Wednesday or Sunday, the Buckeyes will claim the regular-season title outright. The Hoosiers don’t have control over that, but they can still get better Big Ten Tournament seeding.

Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes led all scorers with 28 points, shooting 12-for-13 from the floor. She had one more point than when Indiana beat Northwestern in January at home by 41 points and didn’t even play in the fourth quarter. Sara Scalia and Sydney Parrish scored 11 points each and hit a combined five three-pointers.

Parrish played 25 minutes in her second game back in the starting five after returning from injury. In Thursday’s win over No. 6 Iowa, Parrish played 29 minutes and scored seven key points.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Parrish said postgame about returning to that many minutes. “It's been very hard. I mean, I definitely don't think today was a great performance on my part, but I think it was just trying to get the pace of the game back and get back to like the physicality of it. These last two games have been good for me, and hopefully it just takes off from there.”

Parrish grabbed 10 rebounds for her third double-double. The senior’s first was on the offensive glass midway through the first quarter, scoring the putback to put Indiana up 12-4. The Hoosiers led 26-21 following the first quarter and 43-33 by halftime. In that span, Northwestern’s Melannie Daley led the Wildcats with 12 points from the bench, going 8-for-12. None of the junior’s points were from beyond the arc. Northwestern hit 2-of-12 three-point shots.

“I thought we were not so good in the first half defensively,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “We had to switch some things up, especially guarding Daley. She was really good tonight. I thought our intent was much better in the second half, coming out and getting stops. Not happy we turned the ball over 14 times, but we did a lot of other really good things defensively. Rebounded the ball great tonight. Mack[enzie] was crazy good … nine boards.”

Coming out of halftime, the Hoosiers outscored Northwestern 28-12 in the third quarter. Back in the January meeting, Indiana outscored the Wildcats 25-6 in that same frame. In Tuesday’s third, Daley was held to just six points on four shot attempts as the Hoosiers forced seven turnovers. Outside of the third, Northwestern committed only two others for nine total — well below their average. Indiana had two turnovers in the frame after committing five in the second quarter.

The Hoosiers led 71-45 at the end of the third quarter. And though Northwestern went on two scoring runs in the fourth, it could not get close. The backup forward to Holmes, sophomore Lilly Meister, scored six of her 10 points in that stretch. Freshman Julianna LaMendola matched her career-high eight points. The last time Indiana played Northwestern, four bench players, including LaMendola, reached their career highs. Daley ended Tuesday with 24 points, one shy of the guard’s career high back in November.

With the win, Indiana improves to 23-4 on the season. The Hoosiers conclude their regular season at 3 p.m. Sunday at home against Maryland. The game will be broadcast on Peacock.

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• WHAT MOREN, HOLMES, SCALIA SAID: Here's the full transcript and video of Teri Moren's press conference following Indiana's 86-69 win over No. 4 Iowa on Thursday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. CLICK HERE
• WHAT BLUDER, CLARK SAID: Coach Lisa Bluder and superstar Caitlin Clark spoke with reporters following No. 4 Iowa's 86-69 loss to No. 14 Indiana on Thursday. Here's what they had to say. CLICK HERE
• WATCH PARRISH'S THREES: Indiana senior Sydney Parrish gave the Hoosiers a huge boost on Thursday night, knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the third quarter. Her two triples helped extend IU's lead in the Big Ten clash at Assembly Hall. CLICK HERE