INDIANAPOLIS — She sighed as she walked into the room. She was visibly maddened, with a serious look on her face.
Whether it was because of the turnovers, her 3 for 12 performance from the field or just because of the overall manner of the loss, graduate student guard Sydney Parrish appeared to hold back tears.
It was some 30 minutes after Indiana women’s basketball fell 56-46 Wednesday night to Butler University inside Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Hoosiers are now 1-2 for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
“I thought Butler, give them credit, they played with a greater sense of urgency,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “Which we knew that they would. We’re not naive to think teams like Butler, like Harvard aren’t going to give us their very best.”
Butler began the game with a couple quick buckets to take an early lead, but Indiana responded in the latter stages of the first quarter and held a 2-point lead heading into the second.
The Hoosiers led for much of the second quarter, but in the third, the Bulldogs seized control with their 6-0 run heading into the fourth quarter.
Indiana missed crucial layups in crunch time in the final period while Butler went on a 10-2 run to seal the victory.
It wasn’t just that Indiana lost, but it was in the manner it did so. The Moren-led Hoosier team is known for their grittiness, their toughness and their hustle. On Wednesday, it just wasn’t evident on the court.
The Hoosiers allowed 11 offensive rebounds, while also turning the ball over 16 times. As a result, the Bulldogs had 10 second chance points and 12 points on turnovers.
“Our guards know that we have to take care of the ball better,” Parrish said. “And we also have to get stops and offensive rebounds, and that’s just hustle and grit and playing tough.”
After Indiana fell to Harvard University by 4 points Nov. 7, Moren said she didn’t press the proverbial panic button.
Now, after another loss — this time on the road by 10 points in an environment that had more Indiana fans than Butler ones — Parrish echoed the same sentiment.
“It’s game three, we’re fine,” Parrish said postgame. “It’s game three, we’re good. It sucks. It hurts. Hurt last game.”
While being 1-2 is not a familiar situation, Moren also stressed it’s just the third game of the season. In all three games, the Hoosiers have been without junior guard Lexus Bargesser and sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont, who are out with foot and knee injuries, respectively.
Even without them, Indiana is still a veteran team. But through three games, it’s not been evident. The three returning starters from last season — graduate student guard Chloe Moore-McNeil, junior guard Yarden Garzon and Parrish — have combined for 28 of the Hoosiers’ 60 total giveaways.
“Whether you want to call it focus, lack of, or fatigue creeps in,” Moren said. “We still, I think, are mature enough and old enough to know better and know how important taking care of the ball is.”
But the Hoosiers just haven’t so far. Couple that with their shooting woes — just 40.3% from the field and 25.5% from 3-point range — and it’s cost them two losses.
“We’re not connecting right now on shots,” Moren said. “It’s a hard game when you can’t score.”
Butler head coach Austin Parkinson explained postgame that because Indiana has tall guards, he wanted his squad to “pressure the heck out of them.” And they did.
The Hoosiers’ starting guards — junior Shay Ciezki, Moore-McNeil and Parrish — combined for nine turnovers.
“You could use the term soft; you could use that that’s part of the game planning for Indiana is to be super physical with our guards,” Moren said. “They don’t like that. We have to recognize that, and we got to bow up and be better. We just got to be tougher. We got to be more physical, embrace it and realize right now, that’s what teams are doing to us.”
While the outside narrative could be that Indiana won’t be a good team this season because it lost back-to-back nonconference games against non-Power 4 opponents, it’s certainly not how the Hoosiers feel.
They know they have to remain confident, according to Moren. And with No. 24 Stanford University coming to Bloomington at 2 p.m. Nov. 17, Indiana now has just three days between games to prepare for its first ranked opponent of the season.
“We’re going to stay together and we’re going to be good,” Parrish said. “We’re excited to show everyone that we can bounce back.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
