Indiana Beats Princeton 72-63 With Career Days For Scalia And Holmes, All-Around Team Defense

Indiana women's basketball won both games in Florida in the Fort Myers Tip-Off. On Thanksgiving, Yarden Garzon's career night powered the Hoosiers past Tennessee. On Saturday, Sara Scalia and Mackenzie Holmes scored 20-plus points to beat Princeton.

Indiana women’s basketball outscored Princeton 25-13 in the second quarter of Saturday afternoon’s matchup in the Fort Myers Tip-Off and went on to win 72-63. That spree wasn’t unpredictable — as the Hoosiers outscored Tennessee by the greatest margin in the second quarter of their double-digit win on Thanksgiving night.

Sara Scalia and Mackenzie Holmes scored 22 of the team’s 25 second-quarter points.

The Hoosiers led 16-3 to begin the contest, with three shots from beyond the arc by Scalia. Sydney Parrish added five points. Princeton clawed back with an 8-0 run to pull within five at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Holmes went 6-for-6 from the floor, as the Tigers couldn’t handle the Scalia-Holmes duo.

Double-teaming Holmes meant that Scalia was open somewhere. And Holmes was poised to win one-on-one matchups if she was unattended in the post. With three minutes remaining in the second quarter, Scalia drained her fourth three-pointer of the day, right around the Fort Myers logo. The senior concluded with an Indiana career-high 28 points and seven rebounds.

“I saw my first couple go down and I just felt confident in my next shot,” Scalia said. “I don't even really know what [three] was the logo shot. Obviously, as a shooter, it's good to see your first couple go down. It gives you more confidence throughout the game.”

Scalia also guarded Princeton guard Madison St. Rose — who most recently scored 24 points in the team’s win over No. 22 Oklahoma on Thanksgiving. She held St. Rose to just seven first-half points, without any assists. The Hoosiers went into the break leading 41-24, shooting 16-for-26, or 61.5%, from the field.

Princeton’s Kaitlyn Chen, who scored 24 points at No. 2 UCLA, shot 1-for-8 in the first half.

“Our goal was to make Chen shoot contested two’s,'' Indiana head coach Teri Moren said. “We were going under all ball-screens, we knew [Chen] was gonna get loose and make some of those. But what we didn't want to do, is what St. Rose did against Oklahoma, and that’s sit out there and stick all those threes. And so we were really trying to cover up the three-point line.”

St. Rose made Princeton’s lone three-pointer of the first half through the team’s six attempts. The Tigers, however, went 14-for-28 from the field in the second half and outscored Indiana in the third and fourth quarters. The Hoosiers managed to keep pace, sinking only two fewer baskets. With seven minutes to go in the third quarter, Holmes scored on a layup and became just the second player in program history to reach 2,000 points. The senior recorded 20 on Saturday.

With three minutes remaining in the third, Scalia’s fifth three-pointer temporarily quelled Princeton’s scoring run. The Tigers posted four points before and after Scalia’s triple, which cut the deficit to 54-42. Within the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, Princeton trimmed Indiana’s lead to as little as six, but another Scalia bucket halted the 7-0 run. In the last four minutes, fellow starters Yarden Garzon and Chloe Moore-McNiel totaled nine clutch points.

“It was good to see all of us on the court just fighting till the end,” Scalia said.

Garzon posted an Indiana career-high 23 points in the win over Tennessee. In Fort Myers, three Hoosiers had career performances: Garzon, Scalia, and Holmes’ benchmark. The formula in Florida was two Hoosiers shot great, and starters supported by timely points. On defense, Indiana held two quality opponents to fewer than 65 points.

“It's just knowing that we never want to feel the way we felt leaving Stanford ever again,” Holmes said. “I know I don't want to feel like that. We just want to leave it all out there on the floor and like coach said, our toughness meter is trending in the right direction.”

If the Tennessee victory was considered fluky due to Volunteer injuries, the Princeton win suggests Indiana has turned the corner following the blowout loss to Stanford. Indiana now has won four straight to improve to 5-1. The Hoosiers play Thursday at Maine, which will be a homecoming game for Holmes. 

Related Stories on Indiana Women's Basketball 

• IU-TENNESSEE GAME STORY: Indiana beat No. 19 Tennessee 71-57 on Thanksgiving night to improve to 4-1 on the season. Yarden Garzon shot 5-for-6 from three-point range and finished with a career-high 23 points. CLICK HERE
• IU-LIPSCOMB GAME STORY: On Sunday, Moren graded the team's defense a solid B, which slightly improved from Friday. CLICK HERE
• IU-MURRAY STATE GAME STORY: Though it was an excellent night for the offense, head coach Teri Moren wasn't pleased in the post-game press conference about the team's defensive effort. CLICK HERE
• IU-STANFORD GAME STORY: Indiana women's basketball traveled to Stanford for a top-15, early season road test. The Hoosiers lost for the first time this season as Stanford's Cameron Brink and Kiki Iriafen each scored 20 points. Indiana All-American Mackenzie Holmes was held to just eight points. CLICK HERE