After Oregon sophomore guard Sofia Bell’s missed 3-pointer, it was Indiana women’s basketball’s turn to respond in its first possession of the fourth quarter. The Ducks held momentum as they cut the Hoosiers once 10-point lead to a 2-point lead with a 10-0 run in the middle of the third quarter.
As junior guard Shay Ciezki attempted to make a pass to graduate student guard Chloe Moore-McNeil near half-court, Oregon sophomore guard Ari Long swooped between the two Indiana guards. Long stole the ball, dribbled it down the court and made a layup for the Ducks.
Long’s basket tied the game, putting the Hoosiers and the Ducks at 36 points each, and Indiana’s once 10-point lead vanished.
The sequence foreshadowed the quarter to come, and Indiana fell to Oregon 47-54 Friday at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon.
“Oregon did a really good job of being physical from the jump,” senior forward Karoline Striplin said postgame. “And I think that they made everything difficult for us, so we just had a little bit of lapses, and we were trying to run different stuff, and I think that ultimately Oregon was just really a lot locked in and capitalized on it.”
Indiana tallied seven of its 17 total turnovers in the fourth quarter, which the Ducks used to take control of the lead late in the game.
With just over three minutes remaining in the contest, Oregon junior guard Elisa Mevius intercepted a pass from graduate student guard Sydney Parrish and Moore-McNeil. She took it to the opposite end of the court and scored, giving the Ducks the lead — their first since the second quarter.
Not even 30 seconds after, Oregon scored off a bad pass from Parrish to junior guard Yarden Garzon to put the Ducks up by 3 points. The Hoosiers had no response in the final two minutes of the game.
“We were sloppy, we were careless,” head coach Teri Moren said. “Disappointing, very disappointing, how we didn't handle ourselves well enough in that fourth."
Indiana’s mistakes in the crucial minutes of the contest were what caused it to fall to the Ducks, even though they held the lead for nearly 34 minutes.
“You're not going to win games when you can't value the ball,” Moren said. “We did not do that tonight.”
And it was especially important to take care of the ball against the Ducks, who average just over 10 steals per game — which ranks fourth in the Big Ten — and whose opponents average 19 turnovers per game.
“We had to, at every time out, just remind them they're coming for the ball,” Moren said. “You got to squeeze it. You got to be tight and strong with it, be strong with your passes, meet your passes, come off all your hand-offs hard. We knew they were going to blow those up. So, we weren't surprised by anything they did. We didn't handle ourselves well enough. I got to take responsibility for that.”
Indiana’s inability to take care of the ball has plagued it all season, seemingly uncharacteristic for a team consisting mainly of veteran players. Even in some of their most impressive wins, the Hoosiers have struggled giving the ball away. Their opponents have scored an average of 14.6 points per game off its turnovers.
Whether the inopportune turnovers are a result of a lack of focus from Indiana or its opponent’s anticipation, the Hoosiers have to figure out how to better take care of the ball, especially in late game situations.
And they’ll have to do so soon. Indiana is set to take on No. 12 Ohio State and No. 21 Michigan State in February. The two teams lead the Big Ten in steals with 13.4 per game, so being able to control the ball will be crucial.
But before the Hoosiers turn their attention toward the Buckeyes and Spartans, Indiana will look to snap their three-game losing streak against Washington. The contest between the Hoosiers and the Huskies is set to tip off at 9 p.m. Jan. 27 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle and will stream on Big Ten+.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
