Fifth-year senior guard Sydney Parrish said Indiana women’s basketball both needed to and would be better after its 56-46 loss to in-state opponent Butler University on Nov. 13.
Through three games in 2024-25, the Hoosiers have not played to their expectations or potential. They entered their matchup with No. 24 Stanford University on Sunday 1-2 for the first time since 2008-09 and fell out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since 2018-19.
With a three-game stretch that has been plagued with turnovers and inefficient shot making, the good side of this team needed to be reignited after two early season losses.
The Hoosiers just needed to be what they have been the last three seasons — a team that shoots effectively from beyond the arc, shares the ball, plays efficient defense and does not commit unnecessary turnovers.
At the same time, Indiana needed more from its veterans heading into Sunday. Outside of Parrish’s 20 point and 10 assist double-double against Brown University, there was little to be content with. Along with Parrish, fifth-year senior guard Chloe Moore-McNeil and junior guard Yarden Garzon were ineffective against Butler University and Harvard University.
The Hoosier leaders needed to lead and take command of the glaring issues three games in.
That’s exactly what the three main veterans and their teammates did in their effort to take down Stanford 79-66 on Sunday inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Indiana showed its most efficient performance of the season with its highest leverage so far in the second game of a home-and-home series in which the Cardinal won the first 96-64 on Nov. 12, 2023.
On Sunday, Indiana had its best performance in shooting, assisting and limiting turnovers. The Hoosiers shot 47% from beyond the arc. That nearly doubled its average from this season so far. Indiana had a season-high nine 3-pointers.
Moore-McNeil and Garzon had six of them.
“I kept telling them before the game, all those shots are going to go,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “You just got to believe it, and if you miss, you got to come back and take the next one.”
Moore-McNeil's response to her uncharacteristically weak performances in the two losses was the key for Indiana to beat Stanford, and it will be for the rest of the season.
“She’s the first one to tell you that she has not played very well,” Moren said. “She saw herself, and she responded.”
Indiana needs performances like this from Moore-McNeil. Her experience is second to none, having played in countless big games. While it wasn’t shown yet this season before Sunday, it has been proven — when she shows up, Indiana is hard to beat.
Along with the great play from beyond the arc, the Hoosier defense made its presence felt.
The Hoosiers defensive effort against Butler was rather good, but it just wasn’t backed up by the offense. That was not the case Sunday, as the offense finally managed to compliment a top defensive performance.
Stanford came into Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall as the best 3-point shooting team in the nation, averaging around 15 3-pointers per game and shooting above 50%.
Indiana’s defense held it to only two makes and 18% from long distance. Its defensive physicality forced 15 misses on layups for Stanford. That physicality was the defensive game plan for IU.
“We wanted them to feel us,” Moren said. “That was part of our plan, to be the more physical team.”
Another improvement on defense was Indiana limiting Stanford to only 11 points off turnovers. In the loss against Harvard, the Crimson had 32 points off turnovers.
The best sign for this Hoosier squad was limiting their own turnovers. Moren harped on it when Indiana had 27 against Harvard and 16 against Butler. But it only turned the ball over 10 times Sunday.
Giving your opponent extra chances is the easiest way to let winnable games slip, and Indiana did not do that against Stanford.
At the end of the day, Indiana had success in areas where success was at a premium in the first three games.
Indiana made the shots that it simply didn’t make at Butler and Indiana secured the ball like it didn’t against Harvard.
“There was never a doubt, there was never a panic with this group,” Moore-McNeil said.
With a ranked win under its belt, Indiana now has a blueprint to follow in every performance going forward.
Now, Indiana will head to Nassau, Bahamas, for the Women’s Battle 4 Atlantis. The Hoosiers will play three games in three days, starting with Columbia University on Nov. 23.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
