Indiana forward Mackenzie Holmes drives against Michigan State forward Taiyier Parks during the Hoosiers’ 94-85 win in a Big Ten tournament quarterfinal on Friday in Minneapolis. Bruce Kluckhorn/Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Mackenzie Holmes of Gorham scored 27 points and Sara Scalia added 20 as second-ranked and top-seeded Indiana overcame a slow start to hold off Michigan State 94-85 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday.
Chloe Moore-McNeil had 19 points and 11 assists for the Hoosiers (27-2), while Yarden Garzon added 12 points and five rebounds.
“Obviously we’re not proud of how we came out in that first half,” said Holmes, whose team missed seven of its first eight shots and trailed by as much as 12 points in the second quarter. “But the fact that we were able to kind of weather the storm a little bit and keep our foot on the pedal, keep chipping away at the hole we dug ourselves, was really special.
“That’s not going to fly down the stretch here in this Big Ten Tournament. So we’ve got to learn from it, and we’ve got to be better. But I think it’s a special thing that we were able to come back from something like that.”
Kamaria McDaniel pumped in a season-high 32 points for ninth-seeded Michigan State (16-14). DeeDee Hagemann had 18 points and four assists, while Moira Joiner added 16 points and nine boards.
The Spartans handed Indiana one of its two losses this season, and early on they seemed poised to take down the Hoosiers again.
Michigan State hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter, including a pair by McDaniel, who scored 10 as the Spartans took a 24-14 lead through the first 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, after Holmes converted a layup on their opening possession, the Hoosiers went more than seven minutes without a field goal. They missed seven straight shots before a Scalia 3-pointer ended the drought.
Trailing by six to start the third quarter, Indiana finally got its inside-outside game working. Garzon opened the half with a 3-pointer, Holmes scored seven points in the paint, and Scalia hit a 3 to tie the game 49-49.
Garzon then hit another 3-pointer with 3:55 left in the third quarter to give the Hoosiers their first lead since the game’s opening minute.
(1) SOUTH CAROLINA 93, ARKANSAS 66: Victaria Saxton scored 19 points and Aliyah Boston had her 79th career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds as the Gamecocks improved to 30-0 with a victory over the Razorbacks (21-12) at the Southeastern Conference tournament in Greenville, South Carolina.
The Gamecocks, who’ve won 36 straight, took control early and used their talented, tall lineup to advance to the SEC semifinals Saturday where they’ll play Mississippi.
Arkansas will now sweat things out until Selection Sunday on March 12, on bubble watch as one of the last four teams out according to the latest projections by ESPN.com.
No such worries for defending national champion South Carolina, the last undefeated who reached 30 wins for the sixth time in the past nine seasons.
South Carolina put this one away early. After Erryn Barnum’s 3-pointer tied things at 7-all, the Gamecocks scored 10 straight points lead by a pair of threes by Brea Beal.
(10) NOTRE DAME 66, NORTH CAROLINA STATE 60: Sonia Citron had a season-high 28 points to help the Fighting Irish (25-4) beat three-time reigning champion North Carolina State (20-11) at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Maddy Westbeld added 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Fighting Irish, the top seed. Notre Dame opened the tournament without injured star guard Olivia Miles, but emerged from a grinding second period in which both teams struggled to make shots by coming out of halftime strong to wrestle away control.
Notre Dame led by as many as 14 points midway through the fourth quarter.
(14) OHIO STATE 81, (17) MICHIGAN 79: Freshman Cotie McMahon had 28 points, 11 rebounds and four assists in her Big Ten Tournament debut, Taylor Thierry added 20 points and No. 14 Ohio State(24-6) held off No. 17 Michigan (22-9)in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Ohio State defeated Michigan three times in a season for the first time in program history to advance to the semifinals against No. 1 seed Indiana on Saturday.
Taylor Mikesell finished with 16 points for Ohio State. Sheldon, who played just six games this season due to an injury, scored five points.
Brown had 19 points and nine assists for Michigan.
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