Indiana women’s basketball celebrated its holiday with a huge win over No. 19 University of Tennessee 71-57 in Fort Myers, Florida. Questions arose for Indiana heading into this game given the fact that its first ranked on ranked matchup, Nov. 12 against the No. 4 Stanford University Cardinal did not go as planned. It was a combination of offensive struggles, defensive struggles and silly mistakes that plagued Indiana that day, but the Hoosiers were determined to not let that happen again.
The 19th-ranked Lady Vols came into this game with an advantage in the form of the one big time struggle so far for Indiana — two physical bigs. However, it was reported shortly before tipoff that one of Tennessee’s bigs, senior forward Rickea Jackson would not play.
If Jackson had played, this outcome might have been different. But that won’t be known as the Hoosiers walked away victors.
On Thursday, Indiana proved that it can still compete. The Hoosiers did three critical things they did not do in Palo Alto.
Guarding the perimeter
Against Stanford, Indiana did not help its perimeter defending, resulting in an abundance of field goals for the Cardinal. Being late to defend jump shots, which then led to deciding when to double the bigs, hurt the Hoosiers big time. Thursday night, the perimeter defense forced the Lady Vols to be inefficient from long range, shooting a poor 6-for-20.
Limiting second chance points
Whether it was offensive rebounds, lucky bounces, quick turnovers or fouls, Stanford fed off Indiana’s mistakes in the Cardinal attacking end. This time, Indiana did its job with A+ level execution on the defensive side. It controlled possession and did not let the Lady Vols’ mistakes get overlooked by its own. Against Stanford, Indiana allowed 20 second chance points but limited Tennessee to just five.
Hitting shots
As simple as making baskets may sound, this was a huge difference in Indiana’s ranked matchups. Indiana simply did not hit the shots it did at Stanford like it did Thursday. Sophomore forward Yarden Garzon, who celebrated her 20th birthday Thursday, led the way with 23 points shooting five-of-six from long range.
Garzon’s spark late in the first half was the catalyst for the offense. It wasn’t just Garzon. Graduate student guard and reigning Big Ten Player of the Week Sara Scalia did her specialty and hit two clutch threes.
Head coach Teri Moren said after the Stanford game there is no reason to be shooting 32 3-pointers. The Hoosiers as a team shot 45% from three on 12 less attempts Thursday night. That is solely due to Indiana keeping itself in the game and not needing to get its points back from behind.
Moren said postgame the corrections from Nov. 12 propelled the Hoosiers to victory Thursday.
“After that Stanford loss, we were not just angry and frustrated and disappointed, we were a little embarrassed because we knew that is not our team, that’s not what we are capable of,” Moren said.
In the grand scheme of things in college basketball, men’s and women’s, wins like this are what these “Feast Week” tournaments are all about. Resumé building wins.
“This is a good win for us on the road in a great environment and against a really good basketball team,” Moren said. “We are thankful, we are grateful that we could put it together.”
Next for the Hoosiers is another huge game against a nationally recognized team, the Princeton University Tigers, who sit just outside the top 25. The teams will face off at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa), columnist Ryan Canfield (@_ryancanfield) and photographer Olivia Bianco (@theoliviabianco) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
