Indiana women’s basketball to face Fairfield to open March Madness in 2024 NCAA Tournament
BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana women's basketball team will face Fairfield as a No. 4 seed in the first round of this year's NCAA Tournament.
The Hoosiers (24-5) earned the right to host the opening two rounds at Assembly Hall as a top 16 seed in the tournament. If they advance, they will play the winner of No. 5 Oklahoma/No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast in one of two Albany regionals.
South Carolina is the top seed in the region that also features Notre Dame as the No. 2 seed.
"Some things had to happen this week that went our way," Indiana coach Teri Moren said, on Sunday night. "Anytime that you have an opportunity to play at home in front of your home fans, we're not just excited, but really grateful it worked out the way we wanted to."
Indiana earned a tournament bid for a fourth straight year and fifth time in the last six seasons. The Hoosiers have been a top four seed in the tourney each of the last four years under coach Teri Moren. It's the most successful stretch in program history that includes a run to the Elite Eight in 2021.
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Moren is hoping to have a healthy roster back for the first round after IU suffered an early exit from the Big Ten Tournament with leading scorer Mackenzie Holmes battling a left knee injury that she suffered in the team's regular season-finale.
It's the same injury that was an issue for the All-American forward last year.
Holmes' backup Lilly Meister (ankle) and Sydney Parrish (ankle) were also dealing with injuries in the 69-56 loss to Michigan in the Big Ten Tourney quarterfinals.
"I don't like the way I left things on senior night, going out with injury is not ideal," Holmes said, on Sunday night. "Hosting is something I wanted, just to get a chance to play in front Hoosier nation hopefully two more times."
Holmes, who averaged 20.0 points and 6.9 rebounds this season, came back for a fifth year in hopes of making a run deep into the tournament. The Hoosiers had one of the veteran-most starting lineups in the Big Ten with four returning starters (Parrish, Chloe Moore-McNeil and Yarden Garzon).
Indiana guard Sara Scalia, who replaced Grace Berger in the starting lineup, ended up breaking the team's single-season 3-point record and finished second on the team in scoring with 16.2 points per game. She finished fourth nationally with 3.3 made 3-pointers per game.
The Hoosiers finished with 20-plus wins for the ninth straight season. They only lost one game to a team that finished outside the top 10 of the NET rankings (Illinois).
"It's a great night for us," Moren said. "We've been anticipating, we've been really eager for this night to finally be here. Just grateful for another opportunity to be a part of the field, a really good Fairfield team coming into Bloomington as well as Oklahoma and Florida Gulf Coast. Great field, it's going to be a challenge no matter who we play."
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana vs. Fairfield in March Madness, 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament
