Indiana Women’s Basketball opened the NCAA Tournament with a difficult draw against 13-seeded Fairfield. The Stags came into the game with a 31-1 record and winners of 29 straight.
Fairfield’s energy and physicality were clear from the jump as they made the Hoosiers work for everything. The Stags found themselves leading by five late in the first half before the Hoosiers took the lead back after a 10-0 run.
Indiana led by four heading into the third quarter and that’s when Sara Scalia took over. After scoring nine points in the first half, Scalia scored 12 in the third as Indiana extended the lead to 15. She then added a pair of threes in the fourth as the Hoosiers saw their lead grow to more than 25.
As a team, Indiana Women’s Basketball came into the tournament with the highest three-point percentage in the nation but struggled in the first half.
The Hoosiers made only three shots from beyond the arc in the first half.
In the second half alone, Scalia had four. Her 18 second-half points almost matched Fairfield’s total (22) for the half.
Her performance helped lead Indiana Women’s Basketball to an 89-56 win as they advanced to the Round of 32.
“Anytime she shoots it, we believe it’s going to go in,” head coach Teri Moren said about Scalia. “That’s how much confidence we have in her. Another great day for her.”
After averaging just under ten points a game a season ago, Scalia has become one of the best scorers in the Big Ten this year. She improved her scoring output by nearly seven points from a season ago after averaging 16.2 points heading into the tournament.
Scalia’s improvement is no surprise to Fairfield head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis who coached her while she was on the Minnesota staff.
“Sara’s an incredible player. Even from the time I coached her … she was always in the gym trying to get better,” Thibault-DuDonis said about Scalia. “She added to her game when I coached her after I coached her and as much as you can have a game plan to stop her, she’s that good.”
Scalia’s 27 points set a new Indiana’s new single-game record in the NCAA Tournament. Even after the record-setting performance, her mindset has not changed.
“I just continue to play my role each game and do the same thing,” Scalia said about the game. “I have the same mindset going into each game as far as playing my own game.”
Scalia came into the tournament shooting a career-high 43.2% from distance on the season which has helped generate spacing for her teammates.
“It’s always good for a shooter to have a good shooting game,” Scalia said postgame. “It brings more confidence, but it also opens it up for my other teammates when I hit shots. … It was definitely a good start to the tournament for me and our team.”
Her ability to space the floor has opened up lanes for Indiana’s best post player Mackenzie Holmes to work inside. Holmes averaged 20.0 points and 6.9 rebounds coming into the tournament, but only scored 13 points Saturday.
While she did not dominate like we have seen her do this year, the attention Scalia commands on the perimeter will only help open up things for her inside which will be critical as Indiana moves forward in the tournament.
Scalia, Holmes, and the rest of the Hoosiers will look to have a similar performance on Monday when Indiana Women’s basketball hosts Oklahoma in the Round of 32.
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