In an iconic celebration, IU’s Ali Patberg leaves the Assembly Hall floor one final time

BLOOMINGTON — In the center of it all -- the storming of the student section, a hoisted Teri Moren, unbridled joy in Assembly Hall for a program in its best season ever -- was the one who’d seemingly been there forever. The one who had her last farewell in one of the most special scenes here for a program headed to its second straight Sweet 16.

It was Ali Patberg finally erasing her in-game, locked-in stare into a wide-eyed beaming smile, leaping into the arms of Aleksa Gulbe. It was their final home game. It was Patberg following Mackenzie Holmes running up to the top of the student section and surrounding themselves in high fives and screams. Patberg suddenly hard to spot amid the massive crowd. They came back to the floor and Patberg ran over to the scorers table, embracing Moren in a hug, nearly tackling her coach.

Five years later at IU and seven years after she began playing college basketball, Ali Patberg played her final home game in a 56-55 win over No. 11 seed Princeton.

“I love Assembly Hall,” Patberg said Sunday. “I grew up coming to games. Dreamed about playing here. And I'm just thankful that I had two more games than I normally would have. And senior night wasn't my last game.”

Patberg was part of the group lifting Moren in the air near the north free-throw line to the chants of the name of the coach who’s changed everything for a long-struggling program in Bloomington.

And Patberg’s last game in this building was a win, a defining win with a celebration that will live in highlight reels and dinner table stories for years to come.

It was a scene of a fanbase that didn’t get to watch this team last year, which had one last chance to pack Assembly Hall and give a thunderous, chaotically joyful and iconic thank you as Patberg, Gulbe, Holmes, Grace Berger and Nicole Cardaño-Hillary stood together as players on Branch McCracken Court one final time.

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She’s been the one at the center of the best run in this program’s history. She was brought in to replace Tyra Buss. Moren said she wanted a guard with experience and Patberg was that. She came to IU and sat out a year as the Hoosiers won the WNIT title, the last scene quite as iconic as the one in Assembly Hall on Monday night.

“I think she's meant everything,” Moren said Sunday of Patberg. “Sure, it's easy to have (a relationship) with a group, a team, but it's more difficult to have one with every individual in that locker room. That takes effort. It takes time. And Ali has always been willing to do that with whatever group that we've brought in here to Indiana.”

Patberg was a star immediately until she no longer had to be. Berger came. Then Holmes and Patberg’s role was lightened. She became the elder leader, still capable of huge performances and always there in the most clutch moments.

So this was a performance that showed seventh-year Ali Patberg; no longer the biggest star and instead the leader. The go-to defender. Cardaño-Hillary frustrates opposing guards. Ali Patberg locks them down.

Patberg shadowed Princeton star guard Abby Meyers and didn’t allow her to hit a 3-pointer until one splashed through as the final buzzer sounded. Meyers finished with 11 points, and only two before the fourth quarter. Meyers shot 4-of-15, 1-of-7 on 3s. Patberg locked her down.

Patberg has been in this building long enough to know every board of hardwood and leaves among the most competitive, intense and transformative players here. Her intensity shows in the anger in her eyes while she fixes her hair after diving on the floor for the ball. It shows in the energy she brought willing her team in the final minutes against Princeton, not wanting her college career to end on this night. She’s now IU’s winningest player and it made sense the ball ended up in her hands at the end of the biggest defensive stop in one of the biggest wins in this building. She got up with a seemingly patented Patberg fist pump and yelled to her teammates, high-fiving them on the way back to the bench.

“She's put the team over herself a 100% of the time and sacrificed for others on the team to shine, as well,” Grace Berger said Monday. “She's just a complete team player. She does everything she can to win.”

Moren had thought about her seniors after leaving shootaround Monday morning. She thought about what it would mean to leave this building with a win, let alone one as monumental as this. Patberg did that.

Moren repeatedly says Patberg means everything to the program and she’s right. Maybe Patberg will be back on this floor again someday as a coach. Moren knows she wants to coach, and has even joked about Patberg getting the job after her.

Until then at least, IU fans had their joyful end to the basketball season in Bloomington. One last time, they said thank you to the player who meant everything.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball: Ali Patberg leaves Assembly Hall floor one final time