Indiana Women’s Basketball: Best games of 2019 – Women’s basketball upsets South Carolina

Indiana women’s basketball team traveled to Puerto Rico for the Thanksgiving weekend and came away with a huge win over top-5 ranked South Carolina.

The Indiana Hoosiers women’s basketball team entered the 2019-20 season ranked 24th in the country and were looking to build off their 21-13 record from last year. The year started off great as the Hoosiers started the year 4-0 before their trip to Puerto Rico to play in the Paradise Jam.

While they had played well in their four games they were largely untested, but Puerto Rico was going to be different. There they were going to face top-5 programs in Baylor and South Carolina along with Washington State.

First up would be the Gamecocks of South Carolina, and one of the most memorable games of the year for the Hoosiers.

South Carolina entered the game undefeated and had a loaded roster. They were a top-5 team that would later prove to arguably be the best team in the country. They would lose one game all year long, and after playing the Hoosiers would dismantle Baylor.

The Hoosiers shouldn’t have even been in this game better yet win it. But win it is what they would do.

The first quarter was a fast-paced back and forth affair as the Gamecocks finished with a 22-21 lead. The second quarter, though, was all Hoosiers as Ali Patberg scored eight points to help lead Indiana to a 36-31 lead at the break. It was of the rare times all season that South Carolina would be outscored in a quarter, and one more was about to happen later in this game.

The third quarter shifted back to the Gamecocks as they outscored the Hoosiers 20-9 to take a 51-47 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Heading into the final quarter it looked like the Gamecocks had taken ahold of the game and the Hoosiers would be in trouble.

Indiana had other plans, though, as they put the clamps down on the South Carolina offense at gave up only six points in the final quarter. The Hoosiers would hold the Gamecocks scoreless for the final 4:18 of the game as they blew past them for a 14 point win.

It was an impressive final quarter for the Hoosiers as they outscored South Carolina 20-6 to pull off the huge upset. Patberg and Brenna Wise led Indiana with 16 points each. Aleksa Gulbe and Grace Berger chipped in 10 points each for the Hoosiers.

Indiana held the Gamecocks to just 2-19 shooting from deep while hitting seven triples of their own. The Hoosiers played well on offense but it was their defense in the end that helped fuel the upset.

Indiana would have other great wins this year, but none come close to the huge upset of the Gamecocks. Hoosier fans knew it was a huge win, but the win got even better by the fact that South Carolina ran through the rest of their schedule without a loss.

Upsetting the top team in the country and giving them their only loss of the year is by far the top game by the Hoosier women’s basketball team and maybe for all of Indiana this year. What makes it even better is South Carolina didn’t even bother to post the full game on YouTube but posted almost all their wins.