Indiana Women's Basketball Will Resume Conference Play With Ohio State as the Buckeyes' First Ranked Opponent of the Season

The No. 10-ranked Hoosiers are coming off a dominant win versus Fairfield due in part to a fantastic shooting performance. The No. 20-ranked Buckeyes also have plenty of success shooting and is the Big Ten's highest scoring offense. Indiana hits the road to face another ranked opponent in Ohio State on Sunday in Columbus.

IU Athletics

The No. 10-ranked Hoosiers are off to Columbus, Ohio for their second Big Ten conference game of the season versus the No. 20-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.

The Hoosiers are fresh off of a 91-58 win over Fairfield, a game that presented many fouls from both teams but also tremendous shooting from Indiana, who drained plenty of shots made clear by the high score.

"I thought overall, you shoot at 61% from the field, a lot of good things," coach Teri Moren said. "I thought we took them out of everything they wanted to do. That's a great offensive team, veteran team that runs a lot of actions, so you're always on alert."

The Buckeyes are currently 7-1 and 1-0 in the Big Ten conference defeating Purdue last week. The Hoosiers will be the Buckeye's first ranked opponent of the season and had great practice prepping for them after a 94-50 victory over Mount St. Mary's on Tuesday.

They're averaging 87.8 points per game and is the Big Ten's highest scoring offense.  Indiana head coach Teri Moren has said she'd like to achieve an 80-point average with her group.

Who is putting up those big numbers for the Buckeyes? It's junior guard Jacey Sheldon leading the pack with 18.6 points per game alongside senior guard Taylor Mikesell who adds 16.3 points per game.

Sheldon, the Dublin, Ohio native, has built up her basketball resume joining Second Team All-Big Ten last season. She was the only player to start in all 20 games and in addition to leading the team in points last season, she also led with 35 steals.

Indiana junior forward Mackenzie Holmes is her team's leader averaging 17.2 points per game. All five starters are also averaging double figures.

Senior guard Grace Berger is averaging 13.6 points per game despite going through a shooting slump for the past few games. Against Fairfield, the decorated athlete's shots kept draining. Along with her teammates, Berger never lost confidence in her powerful offensive performance. 

"I've just been continuing to work outside of practice and being aggressive in practice, so that translates over to games when I haven't been able to knock them down," Berger said. "Hopefully I can get some momentum on that from practice, and I think that kind of paid off."

Before the Hoosiers play another ranked team, they would like to put in the work on eliminating turnovers. They're averaging 14 turnovers a game, a number Moren would like to see dwindle down to 11.

"I don't know how you work on that other than just stop doing it," Moren said.

She added that film can be important, and some turnover mistakes are more obvious than others. 

The Hoosiers hit the road Sunday for a 7 p.m. ET tipoff versus another challenging matchup in Ohio State. 

This matchup will continue to sharpen up the Hoosiers for tough conference play. With only three more non-conference games left on the schedule, it's grind time for Indiana.

How to watch Indiana at Ohio State

• Who:  Indiana Hoosiers (7-2) vs. Ohio State Buckeyes (7-1)
• When: 7 p.m. ET, Sunday, Dec. 12
• Where: Schottenstein Center, Colombus, Ohio
• TV: Big Ten Network
• Radio: WHCC 105.1 FM

Related stories on Indiana women's basketball

• HOOSIERS BEAT FAIRFIELD BY MORE THAN 30 POINTS:It's a rematch from 1984. The Hoosiers lost to the Fairfield Stags back then, but they came out swinging and claimed a 91-58 victory on Thursday. Plenty of fouls were present on both sides of the court, but Coach Moren and her No. 10-ranked team continued to dominate and improved to 7-2. CLICK HERE.
• INDIANA RESUMES NON-CONFERENCE PLAY: 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. CLICK HERE.
• INDIANA CLAIMS SEASON FIRST BIG TEN WIN: The Hoosiers came out strong showing the Big Ten who's boss as they defeated Penn State 70-40. Indiana went on a 21-0 run and put the Nittany Lions in plenty of scoring droughts while the Hoosiers were comfortable in their oasis. CLICK HERE