The basketball setup at the Mirage in Las Vegas wasn’t popular with Indiana fans.
But the hotel ballroom with a basketball court and a couple hundred chairs served Mackenzie Holmes very well.
The senior center scored 27 points on Saturday evening as the Hoosiers defeated Memphis 79-64 at the Las Vegas Invitational.
“Mack is really good,” IU coach Teri Moren said of Holmes on Saturday evening. “She has great footwork, she has great hands. I think she’s feeling like the old Mack before last year when she injured her knee. I think it’s a combination of her stamina, and she’s finally feeling healthy.”
Indiana used a 30-point second quarter to build a double-digit lead at halftime. Memphis never got closer than nine after the break.
The Hoosiers played without starting guard Grace Berger, who was injured last night in a win over Auburn. In her absence, Sydney Parrish started and scored 10 points and grabbed a team high seven rebounds. Yarden Garzon had 17 points, six rebounds and four assists, Sara Scalia had 16 points and six rebounds, and Chloe Moore-Mcneil had seven points and a team and career high nine assists.
IU shot 50.8 percent from the field and committed just nine turnovers. They limited Memphis to just 34.3 percent from the field.
Holmes scored 53 points over IU’s two games at the event, and she made 22-of-25 shots (88 percent) from the field.
Moren said she didn’t know specifics on Berger’s injury, but expressed some optimism that it won’t be season ending. Berger will have an MRI in Indiana on Sunday.
“Now we’ve gotta go back to Indiana, regroup, figure out when we’re going to get Grace Berger back, and play North Carolina,” Moren said.
No. 5/6 Indiana (7-0) will host North Carolina on Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern (BTN).
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