IUWBB Uses Elite Crowd And Atmosphere To Dominate Iowa And Be In Position To Play March Madness Games At Home

Hoosiers And Hawkeyes Likely To Have A Third Match In Big Ten Tourney To Determine Season Series

Sold Out Assembly Hall Thursday Night Shortly Before Tip

Bloomington-Assembly Hall magic was present Thursday night. The men’s team at IU has used an elite atmosphere many times to pull off signature wins in the packed building.

However, the women getting this full rocking arena at top-notch is a new phenomenon in the last couple of seasons. It was the Hoosiers’ tenth crowd that exceeded 10,000 fans since the middle of last season and the second sellout in that time. Before that, this number had come to fruition exactly twice in program history.

In those ten magical contests in the last couple of seasons, Indiana has gone 9-1. The only slip up occurred in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Miami in 2023 to end that year. This is the only time the team has not come out on top in Bloomington in the last two seasons.

The game against the Hawkeyes on Thursday took it to a whole new level in the no. 14 Hoosiers 86-69 win over the fourth-ranked squad in America. The place was nearly full well before tipoff with lines stretching to the street on every side waiting for the doors to open.

IU Coach Teri Moren praised the fans in attendance for creating a huge home-court advantage.

“Wow, as we represent our program we need to start by talking about the crowd,” Moren said. “Our fan base has continued to come out and support us and we are grateful for that.”

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is a phenomenon that has sold out nearly every place she has gone this season. The difference between the crowd in Bloomington and the ones the Hawkeyes have seen all season though is the hostility they got. In most previous road venues, they have seen a large number of fans who made the trip from their state or people simply wanting to see Clark. This happened to the Hoosiers’ arch-rival in West Lafayette earlier in 2024.

On Thursday at IU it was completely the opposite. While Iowa did have a small amount of traveling supporters in Assembly Hall, the crowd saw well over 90% rooting for the home side and had every seat full from top to bottom booing everything the Hawkeyes did. Indeed, the Indiana faithful sold the place out well over a month ago, leaving almost no tickets for last-minute travel by supporters of the other side or Clark admirers.

Clark praised the atmosphere she played in.

“This is a great environment to come and play basketball,” Clark said. “Their crowd was incredible.”

The Hoosiers rewarded the partisans in attendance with their best performance of the season. Sara Scalia cooked with 25 points and a trio of three-pointers while All-American center Mackenzie Holmes added 24 points.

Holmes also had a huge night on defense in what was a fantastic game for Indiana on that end of the court. She was instrumental in nearly erasing Iowa’s top post scorer Hannah Stuelke from the game. Holmes took that assignment most of the night and swatted four of her shots away while forcing her into tough looks throughout.

Stuelke in the end finished with just 10 points. This is below her average of just over 14 and she recently put up 47 against Penn State. Indiana as a whole also made Clark earn every bit of her 24 points on 8-26 shooting.

Clark said the Hoosiers’ ability to lock down, took her out of rhythm.

“I think being physical,” she said. “Face guarding me, denying the ball, they threw a lot of different people at me. Kind of pushed me off of my spots.”

More than anything, tonight’s victory puts the Cream and Crimson back in position to play home games in Bloomington come March Madness. On the women’s side, the top-16 squads get to play games in their home arena. In the NCAA’s first reveal last week, Indiana was right on the fringe of this happening coming in at no. 15. However, on Monday they took a blowout defeat to an Illinois team whose metrics are in the 40s putting that possibility in jeopardy. Thursday night though gave IU the signature win against a projected host they had not yet achieved in 2023-2024. While the team only has four losses with three to top-10 teams on the road, they had yet to beat anyone projected higher than a seven seed. While they had victories over postseason-bound Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State, Princeton, and Tennessee those are all teams who will be at the back end of March Madness.

Moren admitted her team needed this to start NCAA play where tonight’s big victory happened.

“It’s huge,” she said. “I think tonight we certainly had to have this win. We still have our work cut out for us but tonight was a step in the right direction to host and secure that for our fans here in Bloomington.”

Now if they can avoid slipping up against a struggling Northwestern side next Tuesday in Evanston (7 pm on BTN), the Terps back here a week from Sunday (3 pm on Peacock), and their first game in the Big Ten Tournament, they should be in position to reward their supporters with these two additional home games come March. As a side note to this, if Senior Day against Maryland draws at least 11,840 fans they will average 10,000 supporters for the entire season for the first time in program history. If they can play NCAA games in Bloomington, they will easily blow past that number no matter what they draw in their regular-season finale.

Finally, for anyone who enjoyed the first two contests between the Hoosiers and Hawkeyes in 2024, it may well happen a third time. It is almost certain these two will face off on the Saturday of the conference tournament in the semifinals in Minneapolis assuming neither slips up the day before.

On Thursday night, the fans and Assembly Hall’s environment delivered as it often does in a big game. Now because of that, the Hoosiers could well get a chance to play here again come March assuming they take care of business going forward.