No. 14 Indiana Cruises Past Northwestern 100-59, Four Reserves Hit Career Highs

No. 14 Indiana women's basketball (17-2) improved to 11-0 at home this season by easily beating Northwestern (7-13) on Sunday afternoon at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Four non-starters reached their career-high in points. Indiana plays at Maryland Wednesday.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Four players in the second unit for No. 14 Indiana women’s basketball reached their career-high in points Sunday as the Hoosiers trounced Northwestern 100-59.

Freshmen Lenee Beaumont and Julianna LaMendola scored 11 and seven points, respectively. Sophomores Lilly Meister and Henna Sandvik had 13 and six.

With eight minutes left in the game and Indiana up 82-33, head coach Teri Moren took out the starters for good. Mackenzie Holmes ended with 27 points and 11 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Three other starters also reached double figures. For the second-straight game since starting for injured Sydney Parrish, Lexus Bargesser didn’t score — but she grabbed nine rebounds and led the team with four assists.

“[Bargesser] is doing exactly what we need her to do,” Moren said. “She’s such a great teammate … (assistant coach) Ali [Patberg] watches a ton of film with her and we keep saying the same thing. What you’re doing is exactly what we need you to do. We have scorers on the floor, we feel like we have a lot of them. We need Lexi to continue to facilitate.”

Beaumont subbed into the game in the first quarter, and Northwestern called time out after the freshman’s layup two minutes later. The Hoosiers led 16-2 at that point, and the Wildcats never recovered. Half of those points were by Holmes. Beaumont’s 31 minutes Sunday surpassed her previous high of 19 back in November. Meister also surpassed her career-high minutes Sunday.

“I don't think it's a surprise,” Holmes said about Meister’s career-high points Sunday. “She’s worked super hard. She's very skilled. So it was good to see her get some of those shots to fall.”

Beaumont has usually been a pass-first type-player though 18 prior games, never reaching double figures while scoring nine points in four different games. As the game transitioned into the second half, Beaumont aggressively drove to the lane and shook her defenders for layups. Through 31 minutes — the most by any Indiana player on the floor — she only turned the ball over once. Beaumont also made all three of her free throws. Indiana went 19-for-21 from the line, a dramatic improvement.

“Bo, I thought was great today,” Moren said. “Really took advantage of her minutes. I think it was so good for her to have the performance that she did … for her confidence … She cares so much, and I think she internalizes things. She thinks about things, she sometimes doesn't let some of those things go. We always remind her it's the next play and to see how aggressive she was offensively today was really good for her and good for us.”

With Sunday’s win, Indiana improves to 17-2 on the season, and moves back into a tie with Iowa for first in the Big Ten standings — both with 8-1 records. The Hoosiers now go on the road to Maryland Wednesday and to No. 12 next Sunday. The Maryland game starts at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday and will air on Peacock.

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