Teri Moren walked into the press room at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall soaking wet on Monday night.

The eight-year Hoosiers head coach had just come from the locker room where water was dumped all over her due to a very justified celebration.

Indiana had just defeated Princeton 56-55, advancing to the Sweet 16 for the second-straight season, something that has never been done before in program history. The team also just wrapped up hosting the first two rounds of an NCAA Tournament, another first-time milestone for the program.

“Really happy for our group,” Moren said. “I want to say shoutout to Hoosier Nation. Thanks to Scott Dolson and Mattie White and everybody that was responsible for making sure there were a lot of people in the stands. I do think this: I think tonight was our crowd willing us to this win. They’re going to share as much in it as we are, and so we are really, really grateful that we had our fans tonight inside the hall.”

As the final score suggested, it was no easy task topping Princeton on Monday night.

Indiana, a No. 3 seed, easily handled Charlotte last Saturday while Princeton, a No. 11 seed, upset Kentucky.

The Tigers were a feisty group, and even though their best player, Abby Meyers, went just 4-of-15 from the field and the team fell down as much as 14 in the third quarter, Princeton was still able to find a way to have the lead with 1:12 remaining the game.

“Hats off to a great Princeton team. They had a great year,” Moren said. “They were great defensively. I don’t think that these guys, any of us felt like we were getting anything easy over there on the sideline, especially I thought it picked up their defense in the second half.”

But when Indiana needed a bucket, Moren drew up a perfect play for Grace Berger to go get one.

Berger was able to come off of a ball screen, spin into the lane and get a shot up off of the glass to put Indiana in front 54-52 with 29 seconds left. Moren said big-time players make big-time plays, and that’s what Berger did.

“Like I said, Grace does what Grace does,” Moren said.

Aleksa Gulbe iced the game at the free-throw line to put Indiana up 56-52 with one second left on the clock. Meyers drilled a deep 3-point shot at the buzzer for Princeton, but it didn’t matter as Indiana kept its postseason alive and will keep dancing to the Sweet 16.

When the buzzer sounded, the players rushed up into the student section to celebrate with them, and then they went back down to the floor and lifted Moren off of her feet and hoisted her into the air.

“I wanted them to know how much we appreciate them being there and showing up tonight, and I thought — I went up to coach Moren and I’m like, ‘Can we go thank them?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah.’ And then I ran over there, and I was like, screw it, I’m going to go run up and I’m going to go high-five them and make them feel like they’re part of this victory because they are,” said Mackenzie Holmes, who scored 10 points and had eight rebounds and four blocks on the night.

Berger led the Hoosiers with 15 points, while Nicole Cardaño-Hillary pitched in 12.

This is a group that advanced to the Elite Eight a season ago in San Antonio before losing to Arizona, who advanced to the national championship game. The Elite Eight was a program first, and now, Indiana has a chance to get back there.

All five starters from last year’s team returned for this year’s run, and now, the Hoosiers leave Assembly Hall for the final time this season on their quest for a national title.

The next stop is Bridgeport, Connecticut, on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip against No. 2-seeded UConn in what will likely be a Husky-favored crowd.

“They’re a veteran team,” Moren said of her Hoosiers. “They’re an experienced team. If there’s time on the clock, we always give ourselves a chance to win games, and I thought our experience, our maturity and the fact that we have vets out there on the floor really showed up in a big way.”

The home-court advantage during the first two rounds was special for Indiana. The city of Bloomington and the state of Indiana seem firmly behind this group.

All Moren has done in her time as the Indiana head coach is accomplish milestones the program hasn’t seen before. A second-straight Sweet 16 is certainly sweet, but this group wants more.

“To be able to go to back-to-back Sweet 16s is special,” Moren said. “If you talk to that group in the locker room right now, the job is not done. We want to go deeper than just a Sweet 16.”