Indiana Women's Basketball Dominates Fairfield in the first round of March Madness.
Sara Scalia scored 27 points, and Mackenzie Holmes added 13 points and six rebounds in the Hoosiers' rout of the Stags.
By Dante Pryor
It was the Sara Scalia show on Saturday afternoon in Bloomington. She scored 27 points to lead the fourth-seeded and 14th-ranked Indiana Hoosiers over 13-seed and #25 Fairfield Stags at Assembly Hall. Scalia did her best Step Curry impression, going 5-10 from three-point range.
Give the Stags credit. They did everything they could to make it a game early. They led early in the game. Forward Yarden Garzon hit a three-pointer to give Indiana a 32-31 lead, erasing a Fairfield four-point lead late in the second quarter
Indiana took a four-point lead in the locker room. Then head coach Teri Moren did what she does better than anyone: made second-half adjustments.
Led by Sara Scalia, the Hoosiers used a 13-0 run in the third quarter to take control of the game.
Indiana had too much size and length for a feisty Fairfield squad. The Hoosiers out-rebounded the Stags 45-29 and blocked ten shots. Indiana out-scored the Stags in the paint 40-18. The Hoosiers also had a large advantage at the free throw line, shooting 22 free throws, while Fairfield shot just four.
The Stags knew they would have to shoot well from the perimeter and their ball movement kept them in the game for a while. Indiana improved their defensive rotations and began to contest those jump shots. Fairfield's lack of size made it difficult to get the ball inside for easy baskets.
The loss ends Fairfield's 29-game losing streak. The Hoosiers face the winner of No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast on Monday night.