Moren has 199 career wins as a head coach, meaning a victory against Gardner-Webb would be her first as a Hoosier and her 200th in her career. But Moren said milestones are a remote thought at this point.
“I think that’s probably the last thing I’m thinking about right now,” Moren said. “It’s more about how we can prepare our team to beat Gardner-Webb. That’s the most important thing that our staff and I are worried about right now.”
The 2 p.m. Saturday game is the first of the season for the 2014-15 Hoosiers, and if they hope to get off on the right foot, they’ll have to go through Gardner-Webb.
The Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs finished last year 16-14 with an 11-9 record in the Big South conference. They are led by their leading returning scorer Jessica Heilig, who averaged 10.3 points and 5.7 rebounds last year as a junior.
However, Moren said Gardner-Webb is more athletic than the Hoosiers and could give them trouble when they attack the basket.
“They’re really going to challenge us and test us on the defensive end,” Moren said. “This is a team that last year got to the free throw line 200 times more than their opponents. That’s a good indication that they’re putting it on the deck and they’re looking to attack the glass.”
From an offensive standpoint, Moren has repeatedly said the key to their offense is active post players, but the Hoosier guards are the big scorers.
In IU’s only exhibition game against Indianapolis last Sunday, freshman Tyra Buss scored 26 points and swiped five steals en route to an 88-49 dismantling.
However, Buss said the key to success on Saturday will be preventing points, rather than scoring them.
“We’ve been really emphasizing the defensive end and getting stops,” Buss said. “Everyone knows that we can score pretty well, so the main focus right now is working on our defense.”
Moren said a season-long goal for the Hoosiers will be to hold their opponents to less than 60 points. If they can do that and still utilize scorers like Buss, Moren said that will translate to wins.
Eighty-eight points would have been the second-highest total of the season last year, despite last year’s leading scorer, sophomore Larryn Brooks, registering just three points in the contest.
“Of course I’m still gonna look to shoot,” Brooks said. “But I know that a lot of teams are going to buckle down on me because of the year I had last year. So I’m looking to be more of an overall player.”
The Hoosiers are not deep in the post, but freshman Amanda Cahill and sophomore Jenn Anderson went off against Indianapolis, combining for 23 points and 19 rebounds.
Those two will look for similar success Saturday against a smaller Gardner-Webb team. The Runnin’ Bulldogs’ only player taller than 6-foot-2 is Gerda Paulauskaite, a 6-foot-3 freshman center.
Moren said if the Hoosiers can work the ball down low and play good team defense, they’ll be successful Saturday.
“I just don’t think on any given night we’re going rely on one or two people,” Moren said. “It’s gonna be score by committee and defend by committee. And at the end of the night, as long as we walk out and put a ‘W’ in that win column, that’s the most important thing to this group.”
