Since she suffered a right knee injury against then-No. 18 Baylor University on Nov. 24, 2024, Sydney Parrish missed five games. She then returned against Oakland University on Dec. 22 sporting a white DonJoy knee brace.
Over Indiana women’s basketball’s 13 games since the graduate student guard returned, the Hoosiers went 7-6. When her squad fell to Washington on Jan. 27, Indiana head coach Teri Moren said Parrish would “likely” continue to wear the brace because she felt more comfortable with it.
But Saturday, with the Barn Burner Trophy on the line in Indiana’s in-state matchup with Purdue, Parrish opted not to wear the brace in the Hoosiers’ 78-56 victory over the Boilermakers inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
“Pretty good,” Parrish said postgame about how her knee feels. “I’m not wearing it anymore so I’m feeling better. I think it made me a little faster today — that was the goal. I feel really good.”
Parrish finished with a game-high 19 points as she went 7 for 11 from the field and 3 for 5 from 3-point range. She also accumulated four of Indiana’s 13 steals. Moren, however, said postgame she didn’t notice Parrish was without the brace against the Boilermakers.
“Is that why she got in those passing lanes? Had those four steals?” Moren said. “Honest to goodness, I didn’t even see that she didn’t have that thing on.”
In the Hoosiers’ 3-point loss to Michigan on Wednesday, Parrish was involved in miscues down the stretch of the contest that cost Indiana a victory that could’ve helped improve its resume.
Over the past two days of practice, the Hoosiers focused on being in the proper positions, helping each other and not leaving a teammate stranded by themselves, Parrish said. And it worked Saturday.
The Hoosiers held the Boilermakers to 42% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc. Indiana also forced Purdue into 24 turnovers, which led to the Hoosiers’ 27 points off turnovers. The Cream and Crimson also racked up 20 fast-break points.
Moren said she felt Parrish was going to be “super motivated” Saturday to turn in a high-quality performance. Parrish did just that, and the motivation was simple.
“We were playing Purdue,” Parrish said. “I think a lot of people know how a kid from Indiana feels about the team up north, and we had to bring it today.”
And the Hoosiers brought it. They defeated the Boilermakers for the 12th consecutive meeting and retained the Barn Burner Trophy for the ninth season in a row. A rivalry that used to be in total favor of Purdue has now flipped.
Indiana’s dominance is “special” for Moren, who played at Purdue from 1987-91 and never lost to the Hoosiers. However, she said Saturday was just another game for the Cream and Crimson.
Coming off back-to-back losses, a dominant victory over its archrival could propel Indiana toward notching victories over its three Quad 1 opponents next on its schedule — No. 9 Ohio State, Michigan State and No. 17 Maryland.
“I think that they’re huge opportunities,” Parrish said. “We didn’t expect to go on the road last week and drop two to teams that we had a lot of potential winning and beating them, so we know the value in these next games coming up.”
Indiana has four days between games as it hosts No. 9 Ohio State on Thursday. The two squads split the season series a year ago, but with conference expansion, there is only one regular season matchup between the two this year.
The Buckeyes sit at No. 15 in the NCAA NET rankings compared to the Hoosiers at No. 38. But with the Hoosier faithful inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Indiana always has a shot to beat whoever it welcomes inside the famed arena.
“This is a great game to build off of with just how we’re playing defensively — we take a lot of pride in that,” junior guard Shay Ciezki said. “So, I do believe that it will carry over in the next few games that we play.”
Whether the Hoosiers do build off Saturday’s blowout victory remains to be seen. They certainly have the potential to; however, Moren said there’s still “a lot” — such as turnovers — her squad must clean up to continue to string together wins.
“We have Ohio State at home so that will be great to be in front of our home crowd for that but then going to Michigan State and Maryland,” Parrish said. “Those are really big games that’ll help us later in the year hopefully.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
