Box score
INDIANAPOLIS- After starting the 2008-09 campaign with eight straight wins, the University of Indianapolis women's basketball team dropped its first game of the season Saturday in a 77-63 final versus 15th-ranked Hillsdale College in the UIndy Thanksgiving Classic at Nicoson Hall. The visiting Chargers shot over 50% from the field in both halves and hit 21-of-24 free throw attempts to hold off a resilient Greyhounds squad.
Like the Hounds, Hillsdale came into the Classic undefeated. After picking up a victory against Southern Indiana yesterday, HC's win versus UIndy upped its record to 4-0, with three of its wins coming against Great Lakes Valley Conference foes.
The Hounds led for the majority of the first half, though not by more than five. With the score locked at 29 and two-and-a-half minutes to go, the Chargers ended the half on an 8-1 run to enter the locker room with a 37-30 lead.
UIndy starters
Jessica Canary and
Katie Dewey each picked up three fouls in the first stanza, and as a result, played just five minutes and 13 minutes, respectively. On the flip side, the Greyhounds did manage to tack a third foul on All-American candidate Katie Cezat just before the break.
UIndy committed just four turnovers after intermission, but went just 14-for-36 (.389) from the field and would not get closer than the halftime deficit.
The opponents traded baskets to start the second half to make it 41-34 Hillsdale, but the Chargers managed a 8-0 rally from that point to take a 13-point lead, thanks in part to a pair of triples from Chelsea Harrison.
The Hounds whittled the lead back down to seven with 14:31 left, but over the next six-plus minutes, HC slowly upped the lead to a game-high 21
Back-to-back threes from freshman
Caroline Schutzman highlighted a 10-0 run from Indianapolis, but the resulting 11-point margin at the six-minute mark would ultimately be as close as the Hounds would get.
Schutzman sank three long-range shots in the second half for UIndy’s only three-point buckets of the game, part of a 3-for-15 performance overall. The Bishop Chatard grad finished with a team-high 13 points on 5-fo-8 shooting. Sophomore
Hillary Wenning (North Decatur) scored all of her 11 points in the first half and redshirt sophomore
Sarah Fenneman (Evansville, Ind.) added 10 points and four rebounds.
Cezat, who didn’t pick up her fourth foul until the seven-minute mark, finished with 29 points and 14 rebounds. The defending Great Lakes Region Player of the Year played the final 5:32 one foul away from disqualification while garnering two points and six rebounds during that span. She averaged 29.0 points and 17.5 rebounds in her two games at the Thanksgiving Classic.
UIndy opens conference play by hosting a pair of intra-division opponents at Nicoson Hall next week. The Hounds face the defending national champions and top-ranked Northern Kentucky Norse Thursday, Dec. 4 at 5:30 pm, followed by a 5:30 game versus Bellarmine Saturday, Dec. 6.