Women's Basketball: Indiana 69, Purdue 46
Purdue women's basketball battled with No. 4 Indiana before falling 69-46 in Mackey Arena on Sunday afternoon. Today's loss is the eighth straight defeat for Purdue against the arch-rival Hoosiers.
The sellout crowd was the first for a Purdue women's basketball game in Mackey Arena since the 1999-2000 season and just the third in program history.
The Boilermakers came into the in-state rivalry matchup winners of their last three, including two wins over Top 25 opponents. However, the top-ranked Hoosiers were the toughest test of the season for Katie Gearlds and Purdue.
The Hoosiers took the lead immediately after Chloe Moore-McNeil opened the game with a three on Indiana's first possession. Guard Sydney Parrish scored a quick four points, and the Boilermakers found themselves down 7-0 a little over three minutes into the game.
Lasha Petree got the offensive going for the Boilermakers with a turnaround over Grace Berger in transition. After a stop at the other end of the floor, Caitlyn Harper knocked down a three for the Boilermakers to make the score 7-5.
Indiana responded with a 5-0 run of their own as Parrish and Berger scored to bring the lead back to seven. The Boilermakers were in the middle of a scoreless stretch of over four minutes before Abbey Ellis drove to the hoop for an and-one bucket. Caitlyn Harper then scored on the block to make it a 14-10 deficit after 10 minutes.
Parrish paced Indiana in the first quarter with seven points as the rest of the Hoosiers were only 2-10 from the floor. The Boilermakers held Indiana under 30% shooting but were hampered by turnovers of their own, which led to seven fast break points for the Hoosiers.
Purdue used its solid finish in the first quarter to go on a 9-0 run and took a three-point lead with 7:52 left after an Abbey Ellis jumper. Ellis and Cassidy Hardin combined for seven of those points.
Chloe Moore-McNeil then hit one of her three three-pointers in the first half to bring things back to even. Moore-McNeil scored eight straight points for the Hoosiers as she scored a game-high 13 in the first half.
After a Yarden Garzon layup put the Boilermakers down six, it looked like Indiana was starting to take control of the game. Madison Layden stopped the Indiana scoring run with an and-one bucket at the 1:04 mark of the second quarter. Moore-McNeil hit a jumper for the Hoosiers in the final minute as Indiana took a 31-26 lead into halftime.
Purdue's achilles heel in the first half was turnovers, as Indiana scored 10 points off of 10 miscues by the Boilermakers. Those turnovers helped negate Purdue's excellent defensive performance against Mackenzie Holmes and Grace Berger. The two All-Big Ten performers combined for just four points on 2-6 shooting in the first half.
However, the likely All-American, Mackenzie Holmes, was not held down for much longer. Indiana's leading scorer was at the forefront of a third-quarter Hoosiers charge, scoring 9 of her team's first 10 points in the second half. Led by Holmes, the Hoosiers brought their five-point halftime lead to 13 in just over three minutes of game action.
Purdue was unable to keep up with the Indiana output and fell further behind. Cassidy Hardin scored on a layup at the 7:52 mark, but those would be the only points for Purdue in the quarter. The Boilermakers ended up 1-17 from the field in the third quarter and 0-7 from three-point range.
To add to the cold shooting, Purdue also turned the ball over seven times. Indiana dominated the entire 10 minutes on both ends of the floor. The Hoosiers were 7-11 from the field and took a 50-28 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Boilermakers attempted to mount a comeback in the final 10 minutes, but it was not enough as Indiana continued its stellar second half play. After being held in check for much of the game, Lasha Petree scored 10 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter. Similar to the first quarter, Indiana's Sydney Parrish scored seven points to give her a game-high 15 points for the game. The Hoosiers closed out the 23 point win with ease.
After the lopsided defeat, Purdue drops to 15-7 overall and 6-6 in Big Ten play. The Boilermakers will look to rebound on Thursday as they travel to New Jersey to take on Rutgers. The only opponent left on the schedule with a winning conference record is Indiana, who Purdue will rematch on February 19th in Bloomington.