Indiana lost 66-58 to No. 2 N.C. State on Thursday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall as part of the Big Ten / ACC Challenge.
The Hoosiers struggled throughout on the offensive end in front of 5,242 fans in Bloomington. IU made just 22-of-65 shots on the night, good for just 33.8 percent. Mackenzie Holmes led IU with 24 points, but the remaining starters made just 10-of-44 attempts from the field. Ali Patberg and Grace Berger both added 10 points, and Berger had team highs nine rebounds and five assists. Nicole Cardano-Hillary came into the game making 52.1 percent of her shots on the season but she was 0-for-10 on the night with four turnovers.
“We’re disappointed, obviously,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said after the game. “Felt like we had every chance to win this game tonight and unfortunately just didn’t hit enough shots. I feel like I’m a broken record cause I kind of said the same thing when we were down in the Bahamas. But right now, getting anything easy, anything outside of Mackenzie tonight to really go down for us was hard, was difficult. We felt like as a step we’ll get a bunch of good shots, really good looks at the basket, and they just didn’t go down.”
The Wolfpack came into the game averaging more than 80 points per game, but IU had held them to 38 through three quarters before a 28-point fourth quarter outburst. Indiana led 23-21 at halftime, and N.C. State led by just one, 48-47, with just over three minutes remaining in the game before pulling away late.
“We did some really good things defensively. We were stingy particularly in the first half,” Moren added.
The No. 6 Hoosiers fell to 5-2 on the season, with both losses coming in games against top-10 opponents. They’ll open Big Ten play on Monday in Bloomington against Penn State.
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