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Friday, Feb. 14
The Indiana Daily Student

sports women's basketball

Garzon finishes with career-high 35 points, guides Indiana women’s basketball to victory

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It started just over two minutes into the game. 

Indiana women’s basketball junior guard Shay Ciezki fired a pass to Yarden Garzon on the right wing. The junior forward drained the 3-pointer as the Hoosiers got out to a quick start against Washington. 

It wasn’t Garzon’s last bucket of the game as her first 3-pointer against Illinois on Jan. 16 was. Instead, the Israel native connected on seven more long balls.  

Despite Garzon’s scoring prominence and the Hoosiers leading by as many as 14 in the final quarter, they collapsed as the Huskies tied the game with less than two minutes remaining. But Indiana responded with a pair of 3-pointers — one from Garzon — to secure the 73-70 victory over Washington at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. 

“Obviously we're excited that we're getting out of here with the win tonight,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “I'm happy for the entire team, though, because this has been a long road trip for us. Super disappointed we couldn't pull it off at Oregon, we just didn't play well enough, and so we felt like we needed this one tonight to get back on track.” 

Indiana entered the matchup on a three-game losing streak. In their losses to Illinois, No. 4 USC and Oregon, the Hoosiers averaged just 55.7 points per game. Over that stretch, Garzon averaged just 7 points, shot 26.4% from the field and 22.7% from long range per game. 

After falling to the Ducks on Jan. 24, Moren described Garzon’s struggles as “certainly concerning.” 

Even with Garzon in perhaps the roughest slump of her three-year career in Bloomington, she didn’t do anything different against the Huskies. 

“I feel like I didn't change a thing,” Garzon said. “I tried to take my shots before the game like usual. I’m trying to be as consistent as I can — this night it fell in, and I hope it will continue.” 

The shots certainly fell for Garzon, who finished with a career-high 35 points as she went 13 for 18 from the field and 8 for 10 from beyond the arc. 

While Garzon didn’t change a thing, neither did Moren. The 11th-year head coach said she wants her shooters to have short-term memory and doesn’t talk with them about their struggles. 

The Hoosiers continue to run sets to get the ball into their shooter's hands, Moren said, no matter how they’ve played over previous games. So, when Garzon’s shots continuously fell Monday, the offense ran through her. 

“When we run things for them, we feel like they can come through for us,” Moren said. “And so, some of that happened for Yarden tonight, some of it was just organic in transition. She felt it. On nights like that, you just try to figure out, ‘Okay, what else do I have on this play sheet that I can just keep giving her the ball?’” 

Despite the fourth-quarter collapse that could have resulted in a disastrous loss, Garzon’s brilliance allowed the Hoosiers to secure the victory — their 13th of the season and first since Jan. 12. 

Since Moren called out her squad after losing to Illinois on Jan. 16 for a lack of energy in the practice the day before the game, there’s been no issues. And the Hoosiers are starting to reap the benefits. 

“They have been so good in terms of the focus, them understanding game plans, them being about the scouting report, how we're going to stop teams,” Moren said. “Energy, I haven't had to coach. Like I said, this is a team that realized we let one slip away at Oregon, because we had the lead, we should have been able to keep the lead. So, we got to own that, and we did.” 

Indiana now returns home to face off with Nebraska on Sunday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The noon matchup is the Hoosiers’ second consecutive Quad 2 matchup before a Quad 4 matchup with Rutgers on Feb. 6. 

Then, the gauntlet begins. 

The Cream and Crimson finish their season with five Quad 1 matchups alongside two rivalry contests with Purdue. 

The Hoosiers’ NCAA Tournament hopes hang in the balance. If they notch wins over the upcoming high-quality opponents, a fifth-consecutive March Madness berth will almost certainly come to fruition. 

But all Indiana wants is to win, Garzon said. It doesn’t matter how nor who they come against; they are “desperate to win.” 

Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.

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