No. 10 Indiana Women's Basketball Resumes Non-Conference Play with Fairfield

The newly ranked No. 10 Indiana will get back to non-conference play by welcoming the Fairfield Stags to Bloomington. The two teams haven't played each other since 1984.

IU Athletics

BLOOMINGTON Ind. — No. 10-ranked Indiana will resume conference play on Thursday, Dec. 9 at home versus the Fairfield Stags, a team the Hoosiers have only played once in 1984.

Indiana is coming off its first Big Ten conference game of the season defeating Penn State 70-40. 

Junior forward Mackenzie Holmes once again led the team with 16 points, although her teammates weren't far behind. All five starters scored in double digits. 

The group have only a few days to celebrate the win before the Stags come to town. Fairfield is currently 3-4 falling to Yale and UMass in its last two games, but the Hoosiers are never quick to rule out a team.

The Stags are led by senior forward Lou Lopez-Senechal who's averaging 18.7 points and five rebounds per game. The team is averaging 62.7 points per game and are predicted to finish third in the MAAC this season.

"We take a lot of pride in our non-conference schedule," junior forward Mackenzie Holmes said.

Indiana head coach Teri Moren has said from the start of the season that she planned a difficult non-conference schedule on purpose to prepare the women for tough Big Ten play. Although the Stags aren't ranked like Stanford and N.C. State, they will still serve as a Hoosier opportunity to improve even more.

"What I know about this team (Indiana) is they feel they have the confidence they can play with anybody, and so that's why you schedule this way because we want to test ourselves against the very best, but with that comes expectations from outside people," Moren said.

On Monday, the Hoosiers showed what a ranked team looks like by putting down 51% of their field goals and 42.9% of their three-pointers, three of those off the hands of graduate guard, Nicole Cardaño-Hillary.

"We're a big blue collar team, and we get in the gym and we shoot those shots," Cardaño-Hillary said. "Those shots, we all have confidence those shots will make it in. We stick to that blue collar mentality, and that's what gets us through the games."

Moren added she's been quite pleased with the defense and the shooting percentages, but she's always looking for ways to make her team better. Indiana tallied 18 turnovers, a problem that needs tweaked right away.

"We got to figure out how to fix that because we're trying to average around 80 points," Moren said. "Anytime you turn it over the way we did, that's a possession lost."

The Hoosiers have just four more non-conference games left in the season before the Big Ten takes over.

Tipoff versus Fairfield is set for 7 p.m. ET at home.

How to watch Fairfield at Indiana

• Who: Fairfield Stags (3-4) vs. Indiana Hoosiers (6-2)
• When: 7 p.m. ET, Thursday, Dec. 9
• Where: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Ind.
• TV: BTN+
• Radio: WHCC 105.1 FM

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• HOOSIERS START BIG TEN PLAY WITH PENN STATE: Indiana has only two losses this season falling to last year's reigning NCAA champion, Stanford, and last year's top seed, N.C. State. Head coach Teri Moren believes these tough matchups will prepare her team for Big Ten play, a challenging conference. Indiana will face Penn State at home to get the Big Ten show started. CLICK HERE.
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