BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana extended the nation’s longest active winning streak to 15 games Sunday afternoon by defeating the Missouri State Lady Bears 98-74 at Assembly Hall.
Danielle Gitzen’s 16 points led 12 different Lady Bears (1-6) in the scoring column, Alexa Willard and Sydney Manning each shot 3-for-5 from beyond the arc, and Brice Calip dished out a career-high seven assists.
MSU reached 73 points for the fifth consecutive game, the team’s longest streak since the 2015-16 campaign, and shot 42.2 percent overall, 7-for-18 (.389) from 3-point land, and 13-for-16 from the foul line.
Indiana (9-0) shot 60.6 percent overall and won the rebounding battle, 38-25, handing MSU its first setback in that category this season. The Hoosiers placed five scorers in double figures, with Ali Patberg handing out 13 assists.
Missouri State jumped ahead 8-2 in the first three minutes, but IU runs of 8-0 and 6-0 had the Hoosiers ahead 18-12 five minutes later.
The Lady Bears climbed within a basket at 20-18 early in the second period, and the Hoosiers countered with a 9-0 run to push the lead to double digits for the first time.
The teams exchanged 7-0 runs with Willard’s rebound and score of her own miss pulling MSU to 31-27 at the 4:31 mark before IU had the margin back at 11 three minutes later. The Lady Bears trailed 42-33 at halftime, and had the deficit to 42-35 to start the second half before IU scored six straight for its largest lead yet at 48-35 with 8:34 on the clock.
Missouri State briefly cut the margin to single digits at 54-45 on a Willard triple at the 6:49 mark, but the Hoosiers again had the response, out-scoring the Lady Bears 32-25 in the quarter and leading by as many as 17 points on the way to a 74-58 tally after three periods.
Gitzen’s jumper at the 7:27 mark of the fourth quarter cut the deficit to 78-67, but MSU would get no closer than that.
Missouri State is off until next Sunday when the Lady Bears host 24th-ranked Gonzaga (8-1) at 2 p.m. at JQH Arena. That game begins a stretch of seven consecutive games in Missouri.
