As Indiana senior guard Sydney Parrish guided in the first basket of the game, Maryland went back the other way for its first possession. Eight passes and 24 seconds later, the buzzer sounded, and Indiana’s defense got the hot start it needed to get the upper hand on the Terrapins.
Sunday was Senior Day, marking the last official home game for graduate student forward Mackenzie Holmes, fifth year senior guard Sara Scalia and redshirt senior center Arielle Wisne.
“It’s a special day,” Indiana team and recruitment coordinator and assistant coach Ali Patberg said pregame. “It’s a day that we are able to honor our seniors and what they have done for our program.”
The Hoosiers got a much-needed regular season ending win over the Terps, 71-54.
Indiana came into Sunday off a dominant win against Northwestern on Tuesday in Evanston, Illinois. While the Hoosiers came away with a 20-point victory, the Hoosiers defense still had some work to do with their frontcourt defense.
The Hoosiers needed a dominant defensive performance against a good Big Ten guard heading into the Big Ten tournament.
And the guard that the Hoosiers faced Sunday was Maryland junior guard Sheyanne Sellers. In the first matchup between the two teams, Sellers was absent with an injury. Sellers was a pre-season All-Big Ten selection from both the media and coaches. She was a unanimous selection among the Big Ten coaches.
She leads Maryland in scoring and assists with 15.4 points and 5.4 assists per game while second in rebounds per game with 5.9.
How did the Hoosiers fare against a versatile combo guard like Sellers?
With 5:38 left in the first quarter, Indiana led 16-2 and had Maryland in all kinds of trouble.
In the time before the media timeout, Maryland tallied four turnovers and five misses, two of which were layups. At the half, Sellers finished the first half with 6 points on 2-of-6 shooting and two turnovers.
It wasn’t just Sellers that struggled in the first half — the Hoosiers defense came to play. Indiana forced turnovers in the form of both errant passes and shot clock violations.
Sellers finished the contest with 11 points on 3-13 shooting with four turnovers.
The Terps inefficiencies continued in the second half. The Hoosiers’ defense set the tone early, leading Maryland to attempt to claw back.
“Sheyanne is not the only one that is physical,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “I mean, it’s a physical team. We didn’t do anything extraordinary. We tried to do our best to keep them in front of us, tried to have activity around the ball.”
What does this performance mean for Indiana?
Indiana has the defensive capabilities to hang with one of the better backcourts in the conference. If the Hoosiers can keep opponents under their scoring average, by just 15 points, the offense will be able to keep them in games. Sunday, Maryland scored 24 points below their average of 78.8.
Indiana succeeded most on defense today when they forced Maryland to take unbalanced, rushed and inefficient shots.
Now, it’s time for the Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Indiana will be the No. 3 seed in the tournament and be on the same side of the bracket as Iowa with Ohio State the only team above the Hawkeyes and Hoosiers.
“We work all offseason, all preseason and definitely during the regular season to get to the postseason,” Scalia said postgame. “We don’t want last year to repeat.”
The Hoosiers will play approximately 25 minutes after the 6:30 ET game Friday at the Target Center.
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.
