Hailey Smith’s 4th quarter gear is enough to lead IU Indy women over Indiana State in opener

After Hailey Smith’s lay-up with 11 seconds left in the 3rd quarter of the Indiana University Indianapolis women’s home opener for the 2025-26 season, the lead over Indiana State was 14. In a game where both team shot less than 15% from the 3-point line (the Jaguars were 4-28 and the Sycamores 2-23), that difference felt comfortable and safe, earned by an athletic defense that would cause 24 turnovers.

But the visitors who only won four games in the 2024-25 season (one of those four was against a Horizon League opponent) stormed back, scoring the first 16 points in the final frame and taking their first lead of the game, 59-58, on a Samiyah Briggs layup at the 4:23 mark.

Enter Hailey Smith, the Jaguar junior guard/forward who transferred in, along with her twin sister Olivia and senior Sydney Bolden, from Ball State. It was Olivia who first hit the three-pointer from the right wing that stopped the bleeding, but Indiana State still didn’t go away, trading baskets with IU Indy for the better part of the next two-and-a-half minutes before the other half of the Smith duet proved to be too much down the stretch, when it mattered the most. Smith would score all six of her team’s points in the final 2:28 to help the Jags seal the deal, 67-64, and and she also added seven rebounds to the winning effort.

So what led to the extra gear?

“My teammates literally keep asking that,” Hailey Smith said after the game. “I don’t even know. They weren’t stopping me, and Coach just kept calling (my number).”

IU Indy head coach, now in her fourth season, was more definitive: “I told the girls they showed tremendous grit and character…I was really proud of them, especially on the defensive end…Olivia and Hailey down the stretch, we just kept going to (Hailey), isolating her, and she had some nice finishes, but, I mean, they’re used to winning. They played for a winning high school, they played for a winning college program that they transferred from, and they found a way.”

The late-game run by Hailey Smith was also enough for her to become her team’s leading scorer in the game, a role that may very well get distributed around the team this season. While a stacked coaching staff should be prepared to develop this group as the season goes on, if there were question marks in the game for IU Indy it was where they are going to get enough scoring, who will be the consistent inside presence, and who wants to be a primary ball handler. Olivia Smith and Jemma Amoore platooned the point guard spot for much of the night, though when the press was on late, it was veteran Nevaeh Foster who seemed to have the ball in her hands as much as anyone.

With last year’s offensive thoroughbred (Katie Davidson) departed for South Florida, Foster’s 9.8 scoring average from a year ago will need to go up, though other teams will surely be aware of that necessity. She had 13 in this one, though only on 27% shooting and 1-for-7 from the three-point-line after knocking down her first one on the team’s first offensive possession.

The potential emergence, then, of sophomore Destini Craig was welcome and could be very big moving forward. Craig chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes of game action off the bench.

“She was really good last year,” Bruce said about Craig. “She only got to play three games as a freshman. She’s battled back from an injury, and she’s playing with a lot of confidence right now. She’s really good on the defensive end. A lot of her points came from getting steals and rebounds, and I thought she did a great job.”