Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes, front, goes after a loose ball Thursday against Southern Illinois. Bobby Goddin/The Herald-Times via AP
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Mackenzie Holmes and Grace Berger each scored 18 points to lead No. 8 Indiana to a 70-37 victory over Southern Illinois on Thursday.
Mackenzie Holmes makes a layup for two of her 18 points in Indiana’s 70-37 win over Southern Illinois. Bobby Goddin/The Herald-Times via AP
The Hoosiers (10-2) got off to a sluggish start during Sunday’s 67-57 victory over Western Michigan. They had no such issues with the Salukis, jumping to a 17-4 lead during a dominant first half.
“One thing we wanted to focus on was not coming out flat,” Holmes said. “We wanted to come out strong and keep our foot on the pedal for 40 minutes. I thought we did a great job doing that.”
Holmes, a former Gorham High star, went 8 for 12 from the field. She also had a team-high seven rebounds.
“We weren’t complacent and we improved from the Western Michigan game, which is what we wanted to see,” Holmes said. “I thought it was good intensity on both ends of the ball.”
Payton McCallister led Southern Illinois (5-5) with 10 points, but Makenzie Silvey was limited to nine points on 4-of-15 shooting. Silvey was named Missouri Valley Conference player of the week after she averaged 21.7 points in three games last week.
FOOTBALL
GATOR BOWL: Rutgers will replace Texas A&M in the Gator Bowl against Wake Forest after an NCAA committee decided to adhere to an existing policy for making teams with 5-7 records bowl eligible.
The NCAA football oversight committee also announced that any bowl can be moved to as late as Jan. 10 if the schools involved need additional time to prepare for the game.
The Gator Bowl will keep its scheduled date and 11 a.m. kickoff time on New Year’s Eve, meaning Rutgers will have less than a week to get ready to play one of the highest-scoring teams in the country.
“Better late than never,” read a tweet from the Rutgers football account. “The Scarlet Knights are going BOWLING.”
Rutgers will be making its first bowl appearance since 2014, its first season as a member of the Big Ten Conference.
Texas A&M pulled out of the game in Jacksonville, Florida, on Dec. 31 because of a lack of available players. The Aggies were having issues with COVID-19, plus they already had been depleted by injuries, opt-outs and players transferring.
NCAA rules allow teams with 5-7 records, such as Rutgers, to be bowl eligible if there are not enough six-win teams to fill all the spots. The 5-7 teams with the highest Academic Progress Rate scores have first crack at open slots. Rutgers is atop that list, though the NCAA did not release the full APR rankings to allow schools to privately decline a bowl bid.
HAWAII BOWL: The University of Hawaii pulled out of the Hawaii Bowl on the eve of the scheduled game against Memphis because of COVID-19, season-ending injuries and transfers.
The game was scheduled for Friday.
Hawaii athletic department spokesperson Derek Inouchi said about 30 players and staff recently tested positive for COVID-19.
FRISCO FOOTBALL CLASSIC: Brett Gabbert completed 22 of 31 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns, Kenny Tracy scored on an 8-yard run and Graham Nicholson kicked two field goals as Miami (Ohio) beat North Texas 27-14 in the first – and possibly last – Frisco Football Classic in Frisco, Texas.
Gabbert, the brother of former NFL quarterback Blaine Gabbert, threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Kenny Davis late in the second quarter and an 11-yarder to Nate Muersch early in the third quarter for Miami (7-6), which won a bowl game for the first time since the 2010 season.
Gabbert was named the game’s offensive MVP. The defensive MVP was Miami freshman nickelback Jacquez Warren, who had an interception at the goal line.
After Miami stopped North Texas inside the RedHawks’ 5-yard line early in the fourth quarter, Gabbert escaped pressure – as he did much of the game – on third-and-8 deep in Miami territory to run for a first down that allowed the RedHawks to run out the rest of the clock.
Austin Aune and Isaiah Johnson scored on runs of 2 yards and 1 yard for the Mean Green (6-7). Aune was 15-of-32 passing for 228 yards and two interceptions.
GASPARILLA BOWL: Isaiah Bowser ran for 155 yards and two touchdowns, Ryan O’Keefe had 85 yards on seven receptions, and Central Florida earned Sunshine State bragging rights by beating Florida 29-17 in Tampa, Florida.
UCF (9-4) took a 26-17 lead late in the third when Daniel Obarski made a 21-yard field goal and Mikey Keene threw a 54-yard scoring strike to O’Keefe in the span of about two minutes.
Florida quarterback Emory Jones, playing in his final game with the Gators (6-7) before entering the transfer portal, completed 14 of 36 passes for 171 yards. He also ran for 62 yards on 10 carries.
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