From IU Athletics:
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana Women's Basketball jumped out to a 13-point lead after the first quarter and never looked back in a 72-54 win over Purdue on Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Senior guard Tyra Buss led with 19 points, a game-high nine assists and tied a season-high five steals as Indiana (8-9, 1-3 B1G) shot a season-high 58.3 percent in the victory. Four players scored in double figures, with junior forward Kym Roysteradded 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting and tied a team-high six rebounds. Senior forward Amanda Cahill followed with 16 points, six rebounds, six assists and tied a season-high four blocks.
Freshman guard Jaelynn Penn chipped in 11 points and four rebounds as the Hoosiers scored 46 of its 72 points in the paint on the day and dished out 18 assists on 28 made shots. IU narrowly won the margin on the boards, 29-27, and shot 42.9 percent from the 3-point line.
Purdue shot just 34 percent and 12.5 percent from 3-point range and had just five points in the opening quarter, the fewest points in any quarter by an opponent this season. With the win, Indiana picks up its fourth-straight home win in the series as the two teams meet for the rematch and Barn Burner Trophy game at Mackey Arena on Feb. 12.
After a 6-5 lead for the Hoosiers with 4:31 to play in the opening frame, the Hoosiers would close the half on a 12-0 run. The run was sparked by a steal from Buss on the Purdue inbound, who tossed to Cahill in the lane. Back-to-back buckets from Buss with 1:56 left made it 14-5 lead and a pair of free throws by Royster capped off the opening quarter up 18-5 as IU shot 63.6 percent to Purdue's 16.7 percent.
The run would last into the early minutes of the second quarter, as Purdue went over six minutes without a point. The Boilermakers (10-7, 1-2 B1G) would only get within 12 for the rest of the half, as Cahill's bucket with 2:52 remaining doubled up the score once again as Indiana led 32-17 at the break.
IU would maintain its lead in the third, shooting 50 percent with Cahill and Royster each putting in five of their points in the frame to go up 50-34. It was lights out in the fourth as Indiana increased its lead to 24 as it shot a game-high 81.8 percent to close out the game.
QUOTABLE
Head coach Teri Moren
"I'm really pleased with our group and how we approached this game. I thought their focus was tremendous in the locker room prior to tipoff. We had a really short turn around unlike Purdue, who had a week. We only had a day-and-a-half to prepare for a really good Purdue team. I thought our focus was great. Coach (Rhet) Wierzba did a great job making sure that we were prepared. I thought are kids executed a lot of their tendencies. There are a lot of tendencies that the kids have and I thought they did a solid job of locking in to their tendencies and trying to take those away. All of them, there isn't one kid that I can pull out and say she did such a tremendous job. I thought collectively our basketball team together did a really solid job defensively. For us to shoot the ball at 58 percent for the game, that's really good thing. I don't know that we have done that all year. You have to be able to play both sides of the ball, and I thought we did that almost for the entire 40 minutes today."
NOTABLE
- With the 72-54 victory over Purdue, Indiana has now won four straight over the Boilermakers in Bloomington.
- The Hoosiers used an 18-0 in the first half to build a 24-5 lead over Purdue. Indiana led 18-5 at the end of the first quarter. The five points is the fewest they have allowed to an opponent in a quarter this season. Indiana held Purdue to 2-of-12 (16.7 percent) from the field in the opening quarter. For the game Purdue shot 17-of-50 (34 percent).
- From the 4:31 mark of the first quarter until the 8:02 mark of the second quarter, Indiana held Purdue scoreless, a time period of six minutes and 29 seconds.
- The Hoosiers outscored Purdue 46-26 in points in the paint.
- Indiana shot 28-of-48 (58.3 percent) from the field for the game, which included 15-of-23 (65.2 percent) in the second half and the highest mark in a single game this seaon.
- Senior guard Tyra Buss led the Hoosiers with 19 points, nine assists and five steals. Buss extended her career scoring record to 1,950 points.
- With the five steals, Buss (252 steals) is now eight steals from breaking the Hoosiers career steals record. With her nine assists, Buss (478) is 56 assists from breaking the Hoosiers career assist record.
- Junior forward Kym Royster scored 17 points for her 11th double-digit scoring effort of the season. Royster is averaging 16 points per game over the Hoosiers last three games.
- Senior forward Amanda Cahill scored 16 points and added six rebounds and six assists. Cahill moved into 10th on the Hoosiers all-time career scoring list and now has 1,551 points. With her six rebounds Cahill now has 962 career rebounds and is nine rebounds from moving into the top three on the Hoosiers all-time list for career rebounding.
- Freshman forward Jaelynn Penn scored 11 points for the Hoosiers, her sixth game in double-digits this season.
UP NEXT
Indiana travels to Michigan on Wednesday night. Tipoff in Crisler Center is set for 7 p.m. ET.
