Inside the numbers: Indiana women’s basketball has historic first quarter in Michigan win
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana women’s basketball players didn’t quite know what they had accomplished once the buzzer sounded at the end of the first quarter in a 80-59 win over Michigan on Thursday night.
The No. 14 Hoosiers (12-1; 3-0 Big Ten) were 13 of 13 in the quarter with six made 3-pointers as they jumped out to a 36-17 lead.
"I was honestly not aware of that, that's cool,” Scalia said. “Never done that before."
According to StatsPass, Indiana became the first team to start a game by making 15 straight shots since Portland went 15 of 15 in the first half against Pepperdine on Jan. 8, 1999.
"I'll be completely 100% honest, I had no idea we were perfect,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said. “I really wasn't paying much attention, I was just enjoying the pace and how we were sharing the ball."
IU women’s 36 points in the first quarter tied for third most in last five seasons
Indiana has scored 30 points in a quarter 19 times going back to 2018-19.
The 36 points the Hoosiers scored against Michigan was one shy of the program’s first quarter record that was set on Jan. 13, 2019 in a 75-68 win over Wisconsin and tied for third most during Teri Moren’s tenure.
Indiana’s program-record for points scored in a quarter was the 45 they put up in the fourth quarter of a 96-91 loss to Iowa on Feb. 19, 2022.
It’s the best shooting percentage in a quarter for Indiana going back to at least 2018-19.
The Hoosiers have only shot 80% or better four times during that stretch with at least 10 made field goals, the most recent of which came in the second quarter against Princeton (10 of 12) earlier this year.
"Nothing surprises me with this group with their ability to hit shots,” Moren said.
Teri Moren hopes the Hoosiers stay on the attack
Moren hopes the lesson her team takes from the hot start is how important it is to be the aggressor during conference play.
The Hoosiers have only been outscored in the first quarter three times this season — Stanford, Maine and Rutgers, all of which were road games — and outscored their opponents by 97 points overall.
“We knew we had to get out of the gates early,” Moren said. “We had to strike first. We talked a lot about being the more aggressive team, so I loved our mindset in the first quarter.”
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 women are first team to make 15 shots to start game since 1999
