No. 13 Indiana Suffers Close Road Loss to No. 11 Kentucky 72-68

Indiana had a double-digit lead for most of the game, but the Hoosiers couldn't hang on down the stretch and suffered their first loss of the season.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — This fourth quarter collapse looked all too familiar to Indiana women's basketball.

The Hoosiers went through this a few times last season, most notably against Iowa and Northwestern, where they blew big leads and couldn't connect on anything in the fourth quarter.

For the first time in the 2020-21 season, Indiana saw those unfortunate events take place once again in a 72-68 loss to No. 11 Kentucky.

The Hoosiers started out the game slow, shooting poorly from the field, but then the team got hot.

Indiana closed the first quarter on a 12-0 run and took a 21-12 lead after the first 10 minutes.

Much of that continued in the second quarter. Jaelynn Penn got red hot from beyond the arc, making 3-of-4 from three as she led the team with 11 points at halftime.

The Hoosiers took a 36-23 lead into halftime, and did so with Ali Patberg on the bench for most of the second quarter with two fouls.

Indiana was also dominating on the offensive boards. In the third quarter, an Aleksa Gulbe rebound and put-back gave the Hoosiers' 13 second chance points compared to Kentucky's zero. Indiana just so happened to lead by 13 at that point as well.

But as soon as the Wildcats started to get into a rhythm offensively, they slowly chipped away at Indiana's lead. Kentucky cut it down to six points in the third quarter, but Indiana managed to push it back up to 10 heading into the fourth thanks to a buzzer-beating shot from Grace Berger to end the quarter.

Then things started to get out of hand for Indiana.

The Hoosiers couldn't get the ball in the basket. They went on a four-minute scoring drought, and during that time, Kentucky stormed in front by one.

Indiana head coach Teri Moren thought her team became very passive in the fourth quarter. That was the word she continued to use to describe how they played.

"We sort of in between being an aggressive team and a passive team," Moren said. "We were not consistent; we need to be more aggressive for 40 minutes."

Patberg picked up her fourth foul with seven minutes to go, but Moren didn't attribute her struggles to that.

No one could find a bucket in the fourth quarter except for Berger. She scored all of Indiana's 14 points, but even she had some mishaps down the stretch.

With about a minute to play, Berger was called for a five-second violation trying to inbound the ball.

She also missed some easy layups at the rim to give Indiana the lead, and then missed a three with 40 seconds left to tie the game.

"Shots were not falling tonight," Moren said. "I think Grace Berger and Ali Patberg struggled."

Indiana shot 26% from the field in the fourth quarter and didn't make any shots from three.

It was an impressive comeback from Kentucky, but it was a game Indiana definitely felt like it should've won.

As only the third game of the season, it will serve as a good learning curve going forward for Indiana, who will get a week off to digest this loss.

The Hoosiers will be in action next Sunday versus Butler in Assembly Hall.

"We have to be better on a lot of accounts but to go on the road is a challenge for everybody," Moren said. "Give Kentucky credit for coming back because they had some challenges as well. I am disappointed in the Hoosiers, needed to be sounder on defense in the second half. So, we will go back to Bloomington and get back to work."

Below is the full box score between from the Indiana-Kentucky game:

2020-12-06

Published
Dylan Wallace
DYLAN WALLACE

Dylan Wallace is a reporter for Sports Illustrated Indiana. He is a 2020 graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, and is from Crown Point, Ind.