From her shots falling from beyond the arc to intercepting passes on defense, graduate student guard Chloe Moore-McNeil shined during Indiana women’s basketball’s win over Nebraska on Sunday.
Moore-McNeil scored 15 points in the Hoosiers 76-60 win over Nebraska inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington. She finished with a 74.1% field-goal percentage and a season-high four 3-pointers.
“When Chloe is in that zone, she’s really good both defensively and offensively,” head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “And she’s been a little bit up and down as we know, but I’ll stand by what I said, and I always tell her this, ‘As you go, we go.’”
Indiana went with Moore-McNeil on Sunday.
Along with her 15 points, Moore-McNeil played an important part in facilitating the ball to her teammates as she recorded a game-high seven assists.
But Moore-McNeil also played a key role in stopping one of Nebraska’s two leading scorers: freshman guard Britt Prince.
Prince is Nebraska’s second-leading scorer — behind senior center Alexis Markowski — averaging 13.8 points per game. She has put together five 20-plus point performances so far this season, most recently against Purdue on Jan. 30.
While Moore-McNeil and the Hoosiers allowed Prince to score in double figures with 11 points, they didn’t allow her to have an explosive game as she’s done multiple times this season.
“I thought Chloe was terrific as far as just her focus on Britt Prince, just trying to make things difficult for her,” Moren said. “We know how important she is to what Nebraska likes to do.”
But Moore-McNeil’s defensive performance didn’t just end with her eliminating a big game from Prince. She played a role in the Cornhuskers 17 turnovers as she tallied four steals.
“If she can put back-to-back performances together like that every night, we’re a much better basketball team,” Moren said. “And we need her to go down the stretch here and be consistent but be that player that she was today for us.”
And Moren is right. When Moore-McNeil can get involved — offensively and defensively — Indiana has a better chance to win.
But inconsistent play isn’t just a problem for Moore-McNeil as her veteran counterparts have also struggled to consistently shoot the ball at high rates.
Moren mentioned graduate student guard Sydney Parrish’s inconsistency with shooting.
Parrish started Sunday’s game a perfect 2 for 2 from 3-point range but missed her next six 3-point attempts to finish 2 for 8 from beyond the arc. The cold stretch almost opposite of her performance against Washington, when Parrish his four three-pointers.
“Syd was not as great – I think she was 4 for 6 at Washington – didn't shoot it as well (today),” Moren said. “But a lot of those were 2s that she didn't shoot well today, and I guess 2 for 8 (from 3) is not great. But we need Syd to get some consistency for us as well."
Junior guard Yarden Garzon continued to find her rhythm after a tough three-game stretch. During the Hoosiers’ three-game losing stretch, Garzon was inefficient. She scored 3 points against Illinois on Jan. 16 and went 3 for 17 and 4 for 14 against No. 4 USC on Jan. 19 and Oregon on Jan. 24, respectively.
Garzon ended her cold streak against Washington on Jan. 27 when she recorded a career-high 35 points with eight made 3-pointers.
After the win over the Huskies, Moren and Garzon emphasized continuing to not change what they are doing. For Moren, that meant continuing to design plays for Garzon, and for Garzon that meant to keep shooting.
And shots continued to fall for Garzon against Nebraska. She went 5 for 9 from the 3-point line and tallied a game-high 19 points, marking back-to-back sharpshooting performances.
But the Hoosiers need to figure out how to find more consistency, especially from their veterans with a tough stretch of games in February before the postseason with three ranked opponents left on their schedule.
The three veterans will have a chance to build off their performances and find more consistency for Indiana (14-7, 6-4 Big Ten) at 6 p.m. Thursday when they take on Rutgers (9-13, 1-10 Big Ten) inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
