BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2023

Teri Moren

Mackenzie Holmes

Sara Scalia

Target Center

Indiana Hoosiers

Postgame Press Conference

Indiana - 94, Michigan State - 85

TERI MOREN: First of all, we're excited that the tournament is here. Excited to get the first game under our belt.

I want to start by giving Michigan State just a whole lot of credit for how they came out and how they shot the ball there in the first half. They've dealt with a lot of adversity with Suzy obviously not being on the bench for some time. I think Dean has done a tremendous job.

But that is a well-coached team. I thought that they were terrific, especially in the first.

Halftime came at a good time for us, really just to sort of collect our thoughts and also make some adjustments. Not, I guess, strategically, just as much as our minds. I thought we were much better in the second half.

I want to point out Chloe Moore-McNeil, I said to our group, was just tremendous. Her stat line was very impressive today, and her defense is something that we certainly count on.

But give our kids credit for the resiliency that they showed, especially when we were playing from behind. Just really proud of how they handled themselves. I think we're just happy to get the first win out of the way because I think the first game -- I believe this, the first game in tournament play is always the most important.

Q. Sara, who's all here supporting you today, and what's that like playing in front of your family and friends?

SARA SCALIA: Yeah, a lot of my family and extended family. I'm from here, and a lot of my family lives here. Mainly just family and some friends throughout high school. Obviously playing in my home state where I grew up in, it's something special.

Minnesota is obviously like a big part of where I'm from and where I grew up, so it's definitely special playing in my home state. So yeah.

Q. Sara, have you played at Target Center before?

SARA SCALIA: No. When we went to state, we played at Williams. I've never played here.

Q. Can you talk about finding your three-point shot? I think you made your first one, missed a couple, and then looked remarkably confident after that.

SARA SCALIA: Yeah, just kind of sticking with having confidence in my shot. Obviously I've put a lot of work in to pass up shots when I'm open. So I think that's just the biggest thing, is staying confident and trusting my shot. Eventually it kind of showed there in the second half too.

Q. Mackenzie, you were obviously very effective there in the first half, and then in the second half when they were kind of a bit more aggressive defending you, you still were able to score some points and open up your teammates. How were you able to stay effective even when they kind of changed how they were guarding you?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Just being patient, seeing what the defense was giving me, looking for the kickouts because I know, when they collapse, it will be there.

I would just say just being patient and reading what the defense is trying to do.

Q. For either of you, what does it say about Indiana's ability to be able to come back and keep the composure for the whole game to be able to pull out the win?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Obviously we're not proud of how we came out in that first half. I don't think any of us are. But the fact that we were able to kind of weather the storm a little bit and keep our foot on the pedal, keep chipping away at the hole we dug ourselves was really special.

That's not going to fly down the stretch here in this Big Ten Tournament. So we've got to learn from it, and we've got to be better. But I think it's a special thing that we were able to come back from something like that.

Q. Sara, your last three, I thought that was kind of the back breaker. I know it dragged on after that. How did it -- so when you're open, you just want to shoot it, right?

SARA SCALIA: The last three, yeah. I think she was just helping off a little in the paint on Mackenzie, and I think it was Syd that found me in the corner, I was open. So I was just confident in the moment and felt I was open and hit the shot.

Q. For either of you, what adjustments did you make defensively specifically in guarding the three-pointer to kind of slow them down after that first half they had from three?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: They were really hot from three in that first half. So just continuing to press up and guard them from there and hope that they'll miss eventually, but they were hot in that first half. They made eight threes, which for our defense is not what we're looking for.

So just continuing to get out on those shooters.

Q. This is for Mackenzie: I wanted to ask you about Sara. Maybe a little more bigger picture than just today. Obviously she was kind of the offensive focal point when she played at Minnesota, and she's had to take on different roles at Indiana. How have you seen her adapt to Indiana's style and accept those different roles this season?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Yeah, I've always said for Sara to make the decision she did to come here was a very mature decision. It shows she just wants to win, and she's willing to do whatever it takes, whether she's coming off the bench, whether she's starting.

She's willing to do whatever it takes, and I think that speaks volume of her character. Just her willingness to defend, her willingness to hit open shots has been really special to see. I'm glad she's a Hoosier.

Q. Sara, had you been to games at Target Center before, like professional games? What was that like? What are your memories of seeing this place before?

SARA SCALIA: Yeah, I actually watched the Lynx for about eight years playing here. I saw their championships too. So I've been around definitely the Target Center quite a few times. It's definitely special, and this is my first time playing here too.

Yeah, it was fun and a good experience. Obviously I'm happy it's in Minneapolis.

Q. Mack addressed this, but I wanted to ask you, how do you balance the elation of winning with the early struggles? Because you may not get away with that. Against Michigan State, you do. But against Iowa or Ohio State or anyone else in the NCAA Tournament past the first round going forward, you may not get away with getting down ten points. How do you manage to balance that elation not getting too high, knowing you can't always get away with that?

TERI MOREN: I do think this: The first game in tournament play just seems like -- we started off slow. We did not come out. We did dig ourselves a little bit of a hole there, but I did anticipate us getting going. I didn't think it would take till halftime or after halftime.

You can't get away with it, whether it's Iowa, whether it's anybody in the Big and moving forward. It's a lesson learned for our players.

Mack said it. They realize that they were flat, and they realized that, in order to win championships, in order to advance in the NCAA Tournament, that there's a very thin line. Today was a great lesson for us. Hopefully we learned a lesson there, and tomorrow our start will be, I anticipate, a whole lot better.

Q. Coach, whether it be the three-point shooting or the nine first-half turnovers or even getting beat on the boards, what were the kind of adjustments that you made during halftime to limit all three of those and turn things around?

TERI MOREN: It wasn't schematically. We did ice some ball screens there down the stretch, but we needed to fix our minds. That was it. We just needed to fix our attitude. We needed to fix our minds.

As I said, I thought we slept-walked in the first quarter, came out slow, and was uncharacteristic of our basketball team. So that was the adjustment at halftime was to wake up.

Q. Can we get an update on Kiandra Browne and how she's feeling, and kind of what happened on that play?

TERI MOREN: She got hip-checked by TT Parks. I watched it. As we know, she's had two already hip surgeries. So she is on her way, I think, to get X-rays off site. So I don't have a lot of updates right now on her.

I can tell you this, she was in a whole lot of pain when I got out to her. Just hoping and praying for the best for K.B. because she has been through a lot in her short time at IU with injuries and whatnot, just had some bad luck. We'll know more, I think, later on tonight.

Q. When Mackenzie Holmes picked up her fourth foul there early in the fourth quarter, she obviously came out. She had been a lot of your offense there up till that point, but other players kind of stepped up there at the end to pull it out. What did you see, I guess, through that final seven minutes there where Mackenzie Holmes wasn't really able to be super effective but the other players were?

TERI MOREN: Again, I think you saw Yarden step up. You obviously saw Sara Scalia. We posted up Grace in the low block.

This is a balanced team. You guys know this. You've covered us all year. If Mack is being doubled, which we anticipate she's always going to be doubled, then other people have to step up.

This is a mature team. It's a balanced team. They like sharing the ball. The 15 turnovers, a little bit uncharacteristic. Grace threw -- I think airmailed two of them over the top. The one that Syd threw out of bounds, they're just uncharacteristic of us in how we handle the ball, or our lack of handling the ball in ourselves.

We've seen it throughout the entire year, I think, with just different pieces stepping up and providing scoring for us.

Q. Coach, you had talked about changing the mindset around halftime. So when Kiandra goes down, was that kind of a rallying cry at all? They really seemed to come together after that.

TERI MOREN: You know, you're right. It's interesting because you hate it so much, and I wouldn't wish it on anybody, any team, to have to watch one of those players go down. But I think it did give us a moment to sort of -- because I think we went on a 7-0 run after that.

I don't know if it was a rallying cry with K.B., but kids are resilient, and this group, I think, really came together. We love K.B., and this is a group that has -- their chemistry has been off the charts. So certainly there was probably some discussion on being worried but also wanting to take care of the business that we had in front of us.

So yeah, but I think maybe the pause was good for us in a weird kind of way to sort of settle in and start getting our minds where they needed to be.

Q. I wanted to ask, a lot of people asked about kind of the beginning of the game, but what did it say about the way your team handled the end? It was a chopped-up couple minutes, a couple players foul out, have to make a ton of free throws. Just handling not letting the weirdness of that ending kind of throw them off.

TERI MOREN: Again, we just chalk it up to the resilience but also the maturity. We've got two calls there on threes that were just, as you said, choppy, weird, all of it.

I thought our kids tried to keep their composure though. We were just trying to get to the finish line. We had a couple opportunities where we could bring them over and just continue to remind them, just give them twos. We're not willing to give up threes.

So give our kids credit for just really keeping a cool mind out there when things did get a little funky down the stretch.

Q. I'm going to ask you about Sara. I don't know if people already have. She really had a good overall game. It wasn't just her threes today. She was terrific.

TERI MOREN: She's been terrific.

Q. She's really been a big addition to your team. Is this what you expected?

TERI MOREN: No question. Yeah, Sara was -- I get this too, one of the dilemmas we have is I feel like we have six starters, Sara being one of those. I think Mack said it well. She's just been terrific at -- you talked about sacrifices that were going to have to be made with this team because they have all come from different institutions, whether it was Syd, whether it was Sara, where they were starters and played a bunch of minutes.

She has just handled herself in such a beautiful kind of way. She works. She is a worker. She's in before. She stays after. So I am not surprised when she talks about her confidence level because that's -- you know, your work is where you get that, and that kid is a worker.

I would say this, all of us, including myself, our staff, her teammates, when that thing goes up, if she misses, we're surprised. She's such a great competitor, but also a lethal shooter. As Mack said, we're super happy that she's a Hoosier.