IU women’s basketball coasted by Northwestern, 84-64, on Tuesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena for the Hoosiers penultimate regular season game.
The Hoosiers are now 23-4 overall, 14-3 in conference — half a game ahead of Iowa. IU will finish the regular season at home against Maryland on Sunday.
Here are three observations:
By the time halftime came around, Mackenzie Holmes had not yet missed.
The fifth-year senior had 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting in the first 20 minutes of the game, grabbing seven rebounds in just 13 minutes.
Holmes flawlessly spun around Northwestern’s Cailegh Walsh multiple times throughout the game, working through double-teams for easy layups and quick jumpers.
Holmes played just 10 minutes in the second half because of IU’s sizable lead. She still made those minutes count, recording 12 points and two rebounds for a quiet 28-point game.
No third-quarter slump
IU had struggled coming out of halftime strong throughout the season. It spurred the Hoosiers’ downfall against Iowa in January, and made their game against Wisconsin closer than it needed to be earlier this month.
On Tuesday, there was no sign of a third-quarter slump.
Despite a 10-point lead going into halftime, IU had struggled with taking care of the ball, recording six turnovers in the first half — compared to none from Northwestern. In a game against Northwestern, which has a 3-13 record, IU should have had a more commanding first half.
After the halftime break, though, the Hoosiers took over.
IU outscored Northwestern, 28-12, in the third quarter, including a 13-0 run through the 10-minute mark. The Hoosiers held the Wildcats to just 4-of-11 shooting and zero 3-pointers, going up by as many as 27 points.
That third quarter allowed IU’s starters to sit for most of the fourth, giving backups Lenee Beaumont and Julianna LaMendola some meaningful minutes and the five starters extra rest ahead of the last regular-season game.
Big Ten Tournament seeding
Going into the final game of the season on Sunday, IU should not only hope to win its game against Maryland, but also root for Ohio State against Iowa.
As the standings sit right now, IU would be the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. IU and Iowa have the same number of losses in the conference, but as it stands now, tiebreakers would award the Hoosiers the higher seed.
With a two-team tie, the league first looks at head-to-head — which would be 1-1. Then, it goes down the standings and compares those two team’s records against that team. Nebraska is the first team in the standings where IU and Iowa would have a disparity. IU has a better winning percentage (1-0) over Nebraska than Iowa (1-1).
Of course, If IU wins against Maryland and Iowa loses one of its last two games (Minnesota and OSU), this tiebreaker wouldn’t be necessary — IU would have three losses, compared to Iowa’s four.
If Iowa wins out and beats Ohio State, though, the No. 2 seed would go to Iowa. While the league counts an 0-1 record and an 0-2 record as the same, pushing down the standings for the tiebreaker, an Iowa victory over Ohio State would give the Hawkeyes a 1-1 record against the Buckeyes this season — better than IU’s 0-1 record.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU women’s basketball coasts by Northwestern; Big Ten finale Sunday
