Boosted by return of Mackenzie Holmes, IU women take down Northwestern

First place Indiana pulled away in the fourth quarter to defeat Northwestern 69-58 on Thursday evening in Bloomington.

The No. 5 Hoosiers (19-4, 11-2) welcomed back leading scorer and rebounder Mackenzie Holmes, who appeared in her first game since Jan. 5 after having a procedure on her knee.

Aleksa Gulbe led IU with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Nicole Cardano-Hillary added 17 points and four assists, and Grace Berger had 15 points and six assists. Holmes started and chipped in six points and six rebounds in 24 minutes of action.

Coming off a Monday loss, head coach Teri Moren was pleased with how her team responded.

“I’m really proud of our group and how they played tonight, especially coming after a really difficult loss at Nebraska,” Moren said.

IU led just 52-50 with 8:11 left in the game but the Hoosiers went on an 8-0 run kicked off by five straight points from Berger. Indiana shot 60 percent in the fourth quarter behind seven points each from Berger and Cardano-Hillary as it built a lead as many as 13 late.

NOTABLE

Gulbe recorded her third double-double of the season.
The Hoosiers are 4-0 coming off a loss this season.
Moren becomes the second coach in program history to reach 100 wins at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The win is the Hoosiers 11^th straight win at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
At 11-2, Indiana is up on three Big Ten teams (Ohio State, Michigan and Maryland) in the loss column. All three teams are 11-3, and IU leads them by percentage points, .846 to .786. The Hoosiers have three league games remaining.

Indiana will host Iowa on Saturday at 4 p.m. Eastern for senior day.