'A major miss': IU won twice, but Las Vegas Invitational was a loss for women's college basketball

There’s no place like home. After a trip to Las Vegas that was memorable for all the wrong reasons, the Hoosiers have probably never been more desperate to return to Bloomington.

The on-court results in the Las Vegas Invitational were a success for the Indiana women's basketball program. Two wins in two days under tough circumstances, the latest of which was a 79-64 win over Memphis, will build confidence heading into Thursday’s highly-anticipated matchup with North Carolina. But an injury to Grace Berger on Friday, paired with embarrassing accommodations that bordered on unsafe, marred what should have been a celebratory holiday getaway.

The lackluster facilities at The Mirage Hotel & Casino first came into focus on Friday night. Seating for fans in a carpeted ballroom was essentially nonexistent. Two televisions on a scorer’s table appeared to be the only scoreboards. The start of the game between Indiana and Memphis on Saturday was delayed by more than an hour after an Auburn player was injured in a game against Colorado State. It reportedly took paramedics more than 30 minutes to arrive to the venue.

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“Any good tournament has EMT, all of that, medical professionals on site. It wasn’t the case. Another big miss for this tournament,” IU coach Teri Moren said. “There were a lot of things that should have been better, and they just weren’t. That was a little bit frustrating. If the shoe was on the other foot and that was my kid, I would be very frustrated. I was very frustrated having to watch that moment for Auburn.

“I discussed it with our staff. ‘Do we feel like we are safe?’ I talked to my athletic director, and he wanted to make sure we all felt safe. The answer to that is yes. We all felt like we were in a safe environment. It just wasn’t the aesthetics that we imagined.”

Moren made it clear that Berger’s injury had nothing to do with the playing surface itself.

Meghan McKeown, an analyst for the Big Ten Network and The Field of 68, tweeted that teams were not provided towels and had to bring hand towels from their hotel rooms. She also said teams had shootarounds at a nearby middle school gym.

Moren said a tournament director did apologize for the disappointing experience. Stadium's Jeff Goodman reported Saturday afternoon that teams were told the venue would use the same setup that had been used for the Athletes Unlimited women’s professional basketball league. Tournament director Bryce McKey did not respond to multiple IndyStar requests for comment.

“I think there are probably other people that need to apologize as well for wanting us to come and play in this event ... This was not what was described to us as far as what the venue was going to look like, what the setup was going to look like,” Moren said.

“What’s disappointing is the aesthetics. It’s not a fan-friendly environment. As women’s basketball coaches, we’re trying to move our game forward. It felt like, because it got so many ticks on social, that we’d taken a couple steps backward in this moment. We have an obligation to grow our game, and we completely missed on this opportunity. You have a lot of really good teams that are here representing their conferences. I see all these other tournaments going on, and footage of that. This was a major miss in my opinion in terms of helping to grow this game.”

As for what happened on the court, Indiana turned in a balanced and dominant performance for three quarters. The Hoosiers came out sluggish, and Memphis led 21-15 after the opening period. But the game was decided in the second quarter, when Indiana outscored the Tigers 30-12 and went on a 15-1 run at one point. Mackenzie Holmes single-handedly put the game away late, scoring 13 of her 27 points in the fourth quarter. Four of the five Indiana starters scored in double-figures (Yarden Garzon 17, Sara Scalia 16, Sydney Parrish 10) and Chloe Moore-McNeil had nine assists. The Hoosiers had 19 assists on 30 field goals and held Memphis to 34% shooting.

Holmes’ dominance over two games (a combined 53 points) is a sign of good things to come for Indiana, especially with Berger’s status uncertain.

“Coach Moren talked about (how) everyone just needed to do a little bit more,” Holmes said.“We had some girls who did that tonight — on the ball, off the ball, on the defensive end. Grace is huge for us on both sides of the ball, so we just needed everyone to take that extra step and just be ready.”

Moren said that Berger is scheduled to get an MRI when Indiana returns home Sunday. She said the senior was using crutches to walk around the hotel, but that it was a precautionary measure.

For now, all Indiana can do is hope for the best — and get the heck out of Vegas.

“Happy that we’re getting out of here with the job that we came out here to do complete,” Moren said. “Now we’ve got to go back to Indiana and regroup.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU women's basketball sweeps underwhelming, frustrating Las Vegas event