After Indiana women’s basketball’s win over the University of Southern Indiana on Wednesday, head coach Teri Moren emphasized the importance of defensive efforts.
“We’re playing in a day and age where everybody wants to see high scoring,” Moren said after the match up against Southern Indiana. “And trust me, I want to score, too, you have to in order to win the game, but I don’t want to go away from how we built this thing and it’s always been we’ve been a very difficult team because we really try to take what you want to do offensively away.
Penn State entered its first Big Ten matchup averaging 82 points and six 3-pointers a game. If the Hoosiers wanted to start conference play with a win, they were going to need to challenge the high-scoring Lady Lions offense with a strong defensive front.
And that’s just what the Hoosiers did.
Indiana held Penn State to 60 points and just 1 of 10 from 3-point range to claim a 15-point victory in its first conference contest of the season –– its seventh straight season opening Big Ten play with a win.
In her return to Penn State, junior guard Shay Ciezki, who transferred to Indiana from Penn State in April, only recorded 5 points and one 3-pointer, but her defense was invaluable for Indiana. Ciezki was tasked with guarding her former teammate, redshirt guard Moriah Murray, for most of the contest.
Murray entered the match up averaging 16.2 points per game on 45.2% shooting from the field. Ciezki and the Hoosier defense limited Murray to just 4 points and 1-of-4 shooting from the field with no 3-pointers.
Like Ciezki, junior guard Henna Sandvik’s 3 total points and five rebounds did not make her jump off the stat sheet, but her defensive effort helped Indiana hold Penn State to just 10% shooting from beyond the arc.
“Henna understands exactly what we have asked her to do, and she understands her role,” Moren said postgame. “There were a couple moments where I said to her ‘You got to look to score,’ she found herself in the baby baseline wide open. She’s a nice player. She’s capable of being an offensive threat for us.”
But what Moren respects about Sandvik is that she recognizes how she can aid Indiana besides putting up points offensively.
“Henna understands that getting those 50/50 balls, guarding hard, doing those little things can help us,” Moren said. “So, I’m happy for her. Nobody works harder in our program then Henna, and so I’m so happy for her that her work is paying off and she’s somebody that we rely on and count on and I thought she was terrific tonight.”
Sandvik set her career-high in minutes with 30 off the bench for Indiana.
Post play was dominant from junior forward Lilly Meister along with senior forward Karoline Striplin, who led Indiana in scoring with 27 points. Penn State redshirt sophomore center Gracie Merkle’s 20.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game rank second and third in the conference, respectively.
While Merkle still put up 16 points against the Hoosiers, Meister and Striplin limited Merkle to just one offensive rebound, which, in turn, helped Indiana limit Penn’s State’s second-chance scoring, where it only had 4 second-chance points throughout the game.
Junior guard Yarden Garzon provided the Hoosiers with crucial takeaways on the defensive side where she tallied three steals and one block
But not only did Garzon provide strong defense for Indiana, Garzon’s offensive efforts allowed the Hoosiers to turn a game tied at halftime into a 15-point win. Garzon recorded 22 points off 60% shooting from beyond the arc, along with five assists. Twelve of Garzon’s 22 points comprised of four of her six triples came during the fourth quarter.
The Hoosiers will resume conference play Dec. 28 against Wisconsin. In the meantime, Indiana will face Bellarmine University on Dec. 15 and Oakland University on Dec. 22 in its final nonconference games of the regular season.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
