No. 6 IU women’s basketball hosts No. 2 N.C. State in Sweet 16 rematch

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana — Exactly 250 days before the rematch, the final shot fell into Grace Berger’s hands at the Alamodome. She thought about throwing the ball up in the air, but didn’t, and instead raced to the open arms of celebrating teammates at midcourt.

73-70, the scoreboard read.

It was the biggest win in program history for the IU women’s basketball team. They’d beaten a No. 1 seed — North Carolina State — to advance for the Elite 8 for the first time in team history.

“This means the world to me,” guard Ali Patberg said after IU’s win over N.C. State.

More:IU coach Teri Moren on how recruits, families react to Assembly Hall

On Thursday, they’ll play again. This time in Assembly Hall.

The Wolfpack are the Hoosiers’ final non-conference opponent, and the third against a top-15 ranked team. It’s the type of schedule Indiana coach Teri Moren believes will prepare IU for Big Ten play, and more importantly, the NCAA Tournament.

And N.C. State, like IU, was one of the many highly ranked teams in the Bahamas last week. IU had a chance to watch N.C. State’s games live. IU watched N.C. State crush Maryland, the preseason Big Ten champion pick — albeit against a depleted Maryland roster.

Moren saw a Wolfpack team that was quite different than 250 days ago. Moren called them deeper than last season, among the deepest in the country and potentially the deepest team IU will face all season.

“They’re better than they were a year ago,” Moren said Wednesday.

Moren said she has used the film from last year’s game, though, as a reminder of how it had success in the game last season. There are added pieces in the Wolfpack lineup, such as Kayla Jones, who missed the Sweet 16 game. N.C. State also added Diamond Johnson, a transfer from Rutgers averaging 13.3 points per game. 

IU, even with the same faces, may be a different team, too. Or at least it has work to do to find what it had last season.

After IU’s narrow win over Miami on Saturday, Moren said IU had to remember what it was a year ago. Last year, she said, players weren’t focused on who needed to score a certain number of points for their own stats or for IU to win.

IU was a balanced scoring team last year, Moren said,

“I don’t think any of us are walking out of that locker room believing that we played great tonight,” Moren said after IU’s win over Miami. “We’ve got to be so much better when N.C. State comes to Bloomington on Thursday. We will be.”

Moren added the team needs to regain focus it hasn’t had in its past three games. IU had to hold on for wins against Miami and Qunnipiac and lost a close game to then-No. 7 Stanford when it played far from its best.

Against Stanford, IU shot 32.4% from the field. Against Miami, IU turned over the ball 24 times — the second time IU had more than 20 turnovers in game through just six games.

Though even in IU’s lone loss, IU showed it has enough scoring options to overcome some of the turnover issues and when someone has a bad night. Moren calls it “sharing the sugar.”

Each of IU’s five starters is averaging double-figures in scoring. Mackenzie Holmes leads the team with 15.3 points per game. Berger and Patberg are each averaging 13.8 points. Nicole Cardaño-Hillary has regressed toward the mean a bit in her three-point shooting, though she is still averaging 12 points per game and Aleksa Gulbe adds 10.8 more.

Kiandra Browne and Chloe Moore-McNeill thus far have been IU’s best depth, though neither has been reliable. IU doesn’t have the depth to match up with N.C. State’s.

Moren said she knows the Wolfpack want revenge. They were supposed to go the Final Four, and IU got in the way.

“This is going to be an N.C. State team that is going to come in here with a lot of motivation,” Moren said.