‘The only thing stopping Sara would be Sara’: Sara Scalia ready to be major producer for IU women’s basketball this year

Sara Scalia has played in the Big Ten her entire career, but last season was her first in an IU women’s basketball jersey.

A transfer from Minnesota, Scalia averaged 17.9 points per game as a junior — her final season with the Gophers. During her first year with the IU women’s basketball program she was a critical piece to the puzzle, averaging 9.5 points per game, primarily off of the bench.

This year, however, her role is expected to increase as is her production. And Indiana needs it.

The Hoosiers lost Grace Berger from a season ago — an all-time great Hoosier and one of the most consistent guards in the country. Now, Scalia moves into that role, albeit with a different skillset.

Scalia is a career 37 percent three point shooter and while a bit of an inconsistent year shooting the ball last season, she knows that’s her bread and butter.

In Wednesday night’s exhibition, she showed it. Scalia had 17 points and was 5-of-8 from three.

“I think it was really important (for my confidence), as a shooter to see your first couple (shots) go down is really big,” Scalia said postgame. “I’ve been continuously trying to work on my game, especially game like shots.”

Scalia shot 34.4 percent last year for Indiana but had nine games with at least three made 3s. In total, she had 15 games with multiple made 3s. But, she also had 10 games without a single make.

This year, that consistency needs to be there for Scalia and for Indiana in order to hit the goals and expectations they have entering the season.

So far through the summer and preseason, Scalia looks the part.

“Sara Scalia looks the best that she’s ever looked in her career in terms of fitness level, her mind, her confidence, all of it,” IU women’s basketball coach Teri Moren said. “It’s great. She can shoot it with the confidence and we will need her to continue to doing that.

“She is lethal. She can cause problems for the defense. I just want her to do what all great shooters do; when in doubt, shoot it … if she misses, she needs to have a short memory and knock the next one down.”

Scalia was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention a season ago. This year she was named to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award preseason watch list — the award given to the top shooting guard in the country.

While the Hoosiers have other key pieces back from last year, Scalia may be the biggest key to them all.

Indiana is going to need more of the Sara Scalia that showed up on Wednesday. But, Wednesday’s performance was no surprise to her teammates and when she does it again during the regular season … it won’t be either.

“I wasn’t surprised by the way she played, I think our whole team knows what she’s capable of. The only thing stopping Sara would be Sara,” IU All-American forward Mackenzie Holmes said. “We all have that confidence in her and she knows we have that confidence in her.”

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