As soon as Indiana women’s basketball took the court against Purdue, it looked dominant and complete.
Once the Hoosiers got out to a 20-2 lead less than halfway into the first quarter, they didn’t let up. They found wide-open teammates under the basket, took shots from 3-point range and played aggressive defense en route to their 78-56 victory over the Boilermakers on Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The completeness is something Indiana will need to carry with it through the remaining games on its schedule — three ranked teams sandwiched between matchups with Purdue, which the Hoosiers handled in their first meeting.
Indiana will face No. 9 Ohio State and No. 17 Maryland at Assembly Hall on Feb. 20 and Feb. 27, respectively, and travel to the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan, to take on No. 22 Michigan State on Feb. 23. The stretch of games could determine their fate come March and a berth to the NCAA Tournament.
“We know the value in these next games coming up,” graduate student guard Sydney Parrish said after the win Saturday. “We have Ohio State at home so that’ll be great to be in front of our home crowd for that, but then going to Michigan State, and then Maryland, those are really big games that’ll help us later in the year, hopefully.”
Parrish said after Indiana dropped two games against Minnesota on Feb. 9 and Michigan on Wednesday on the road, it understood the power of the upcoming three-game stretch. The Hoosiers know they need to play like they did against the Boilermakers to have a chance against their opponents over the next two weeks.
“How we came out tonight, we need to play like that against those teams,” Parrish said.
For Indiana that means finding consistency in areas where it succeeds — 3-point shooting and defense — and improving in areas where it struggles at times: turnovers and rebounding.
Indiana head coach Teri Moren said those four things are the keys to the Hoosiers controlling their postseason fate against three ranked opponents.
“The keys are we have to take care of the basketball,” Moren said. “We have to compete like crazy on the boards. We have to be sound and disciplined, defensively. And then, as elementary as it sounds, we got to his shots, got to hit shots.”
Perhaps the most important aspect will be turnovers, which the Hoosiers have struggled with since the beginning of the season. Although they claimed a victory over the Boilermakers on Saturday, Indiana racked up 16 turnovers against Purdue — 10 of which came in second half.
Protecting the basketball will be especially important against Ohio State and Michigan State, which rank first and second in the Big Ten, respectively, in steals.
Along with limiting turnovers, consistency from long range will be important for the Hoosiers. Inconsistency has plagued Indiana throughout the season. They shot 53.6% from beyond the arc in their win over Rutgers on Feb. 6. Just six days later Indiana shot 18.8% from 3-point range when it fell to Michigan.
It backed up its game against Michigan with a 50% shooting performance against Purdue, but if the current trend continues, Indiana could be back in the same position it was just three days ago when it suffered its ninth loss of the season.
While junior guard Shay Ciezki echoed Parrish’s sentiments about the weight of each of Indiana’s remaining games, she also emphasized taking the stretch one game at a time. With three tough games back-to-back-to-back, the mindset for the Hoosiers will be to not get too far ahead of themselves.
So, before Indiana can look toward the postseason and each of its four remaining opponents, it will have to first take care of Ohio State (21-3, 10-3 Big Ten) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The contest will be streamed on Peacock.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
