Sara Scalia breaks Indiana’s single season 3-point record in win at Wisconsin

  • 02/15/2024 8:11 am in

It was a record-setting night on Wednesday for Indiana’s Sara Scalia.

The fifth-year senior, in her second season as a Hoosier after transferring from Minnesota, set an Indiana women’s basketball program record for made 3-pointers in a season in a 68-54 win against Wisconsin at the Kohl Center.

Scalia connected on four 3-pointers to give her 79 made 3s this season. Her third 3-pointer of the game tied the record, and her fourth triple, which came with 35 seconds left in the third quarter, gave her the record.

The record was previously held by Amanda Cahill, who made 78 3-pointers in the 2017-18 season.

“It obviously means a lot,” Scalia said postgame. “I put a lot of work into the game and my game especially. Just working on improving over the offseason to be able to be where I’m at today. Obviously, an accomplishment like this doesn’t happen without my teammates. It was definitely a good feeling.”

Scalia finished the game with 15 points on 5-for-12 shooting from the field.

In 24 games – all starts – Scalia is averaging 16.3 points, second on Indiana behind All-American Mackenzie Holmes. More importantly, Scalia has been far more efficient this season than in her first season with the Hoosiers.

She’s shooting 44.6 percent overall from 3-point range this season and 40.9 percent in Big Ten games. Last season, Scalia shot 34.4 percent from distance overall and 30.6 percent in conference play, averaging 9.5 points.

For her career over five seasons at Minnesota and Indiana, Scalia is 336-for-891 from distance, good for 37.7 percent. In her final season at Minnesota, she made 111 3-pointers.

Scalia’s improvement is a major reason the Hoosiers have remained ranked in the Associated Press top 25 all season despite losing Grace Berger to graduation and Sydney Parrish to injury over the last seven games.

“She’s been terrific and she’s played with confidence,” Teri Moren said. “They were physical with her tonight. And as we move forward, I’m sure more teams are going to be. She’s continued to shoot it at a really high, high level for us.”

For the season, the Indiana women are shooting 41.4 percent from 3-point range, which ranks first in the country through 24 games. The Hoosiers have outscored their opponents by 207 points on 3s this season.

Wednesday’s win against the Badgers – Indiana’s 21st of the season – kept the Hoosiers a game behind Ohio State in the Big Ten standings. Indiana is 12-2, Iowa is 11-2 and the Buckeyes are 13-1.

The regular season’s final weeks will determine the regular season championship. Indiana hosts Iowa on Thursday, February 22 at Assembly Hall and the Hawkeyes host the Buckeyes on Sunday, March 3 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Hoosiers are now off until Monday when they travel to Illinois to take on the Fighting Illini at 2 p.m. ET at the State Farm Center.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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