Heading into Indiana women’s basketball’s match up with No. 4 USC, head coach Teri Moren had three keys for her players: keep the Trojans out of transition, keep them off the free-throw line and beat them on rebounds.
And in the third quarter, the Hoosiers executed the keys.
Indiana outrebounded USC 13-9, gave up 7 fastbreak points and did not allow the Trojans to get to the free-throw line. The Hoosiers pulled within 1 point of the Trojans at the end of the third quarter, putting them in position to make a run in the fourth quarter.
Graduate student guard Sydney Parrish scored 5 points to open the quarter, but as the period progressed, Indiana got away from what it did so well in the previous quarter.
Trojan sophomore guard JuJu Watkins went 5 for 6 from the free-throw line in the final quarter, while senior forward Rayah Marshall added three more free throws on four attempts.
“We wanted to keep them off the free throw line,” Moren said postgame. “(We) didn't do a very good job. Because when you look at how they scored, it doesn't seem that overwhelming, and then you look at the free throws, and that's the game right there.”
USC scored 21 points from the free-throw line Sunday, 8 of which came from Watkins.
Watkins, who entered the contest averaging 25.5 points per game, scored 22 points and notched six rebounds in the Trojans’ 73-66 victory on Sunday.
“Not even looking at her skillset, I think she’s such a hard player to guard particularly because she can draw those fouls and get to the line at will,” graduate student guard Moore-McNeil said. “In games when she is getting into us and we’re trying to be vertical and the refs are calling it, there’s not much we can do on our end.”
And fouling wasn’t the only area where Indiana started to slip. While the Hoosiers allowed just 4 points in transition during the fourth quarter, the Trojans won the battle on the glass, corralling 10 rebounds to the Hoosiers’ eight.
“Honestly, I think that what’s been getting us, even in not the big games, is the rebounding margin,” senior forward Karoline Striplin said. “Coach (Moren) keeps preaching that in practice and games, but we just got to figure out how to come up with some more rebounds. I feel like that’s going to help push us over the edge.”
In total, the Hoosiers tallied 35 rebounds compared to the Trojans’ 38 rebounds. And although Indiana was outrebounded, Moren was proud of the way her team fought on the glass against a USC team that records an average of 10.2 more rebounds than its opponents.
“I thought our kids battled on the boards,” Moren said. “I think our kids gave us everything they had as far as to do a good job of rebounding the ball.”
But even before Moren revealed her three keys to the game, she acknowledged Indiana struggled to win the turnover battle.
“I thought coming down the stretch, we had a couple back-to-back turnovers that were pretty crucial,” Moren said.
Turnovers in important moments have become part of the story for Indiana throughout the season. In early games, Indiana racked up turnovers, including 27 against Harvard on Nov. 7. But even as the Hoosiers continue to get more time on the court, the issue with turnovers has still not been resolved. Most recently, Indiana gave up 14 points off 14 turnovers in their 14-point loss to Illinois on Jan. 16.
Indiana failing to win those areas — rebounds, transition, free-throws and turnovers — in the fourth quarter was what allowed USC to pull away and turn a 1-point lead into a 7-point win. If the Hoosiers continue to lose these battles with other Big Ten opponents, they are sure to see more games slip away, just like Sunday against the Trojans.
“Obviously, USC is a very talented team with a great coaching staff,” Moren said. “It was, I thought, a really great game with two really good opponents. So, like I said, disappointed that we came up short, but I thought there were a lot of good things that we did."
Indiana (12-6, 4-3 Big Ten) will now look to break its two-game losing streak against Oregon (13-5, 4-3 Big Ten) at 9 p.m. Friday at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon. The contest 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.
