Indiana women’s basketball teams under head coach Teri Moren pride themselves on a few main things: maximum effort, relentless defense and being unafraid to shoot the ball.
These values won Moren a Big Ten championship, coached her to into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and most recently, pushed her team to an 81-60 victory over Rutgers on Thursday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
In a couple games this season, Indiana has struggled to hit shots. A reason Indiana has lost seven games is inconsistent shooting. One game, the Hoosiers may look like a team that can’t miss. But in the next, they’ll look like a team that can’t make any shots from behind the long line.
In Indiana’s weakest overall performances, its hard to not look too far from the 3-point percentage as a reason for its shortcomings.
As early as the loss to Butler on Nov. 13, Indiana showed its struggles from 3-point range, missing 11 attempts in the 56-46 loss.
Against the University of North Carolina in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game Nov. 25, that same trouble hit the Hoosiers once more, as Indiana was 4 of 26 from 3-point range. That led to Indiana scoring a sluggish 39 points in the loss.
Moren has said time and again that her squad just needs to keep on shooting. Shots are going to fall, and they did Thursday.
Indiana made 15 3-pointers Thursday against Rutgers, a new season-high. Ten of those conversions came in the third quarter, when Indiana pulled away from the Scarlet Knights after a sloppy start to the first half.
What’s different about Thursday is Indiana’s best shot makers of the night did not include its best 3-point maker, junior guard Yarden Garzon.
Thursday, it was graduate student guard Chloe Moore-McNeil and junior guard Shay Ciezki, who went 8-of-12 combined. Plus, graduate student guard Sydney Parrish hit four 3-pointers of her own and led the team in scoring with 22 points.
For Moore-McNeil, while being the team's most vocal leader, she provides a defensive jolt more often than an offense one. While being a 37% 3-point shooter, she’s not the go-to player in terms of connecting from long range. But Thursday, she was on fire with three makes.
For Ciezki, performances like Thursday’s were the reason she was highly coveted in the transfer portal, replacing the shooting from former Hoosier Sara Scalia. But the Buffalo, New York, native has been struggling mightily since the West Coast trip, scoring just 9 points in the last three games.
If Indiana wants to reach its goals, Thursday must not be an anomaly for Ciezki. Instead, it must once again be a game-by-game expectation, and one she must deliver.
Postgame, Moren recognized that both Ciezki and Moore-McNeil also facilitated on the shots they didn’t shoot, most specifically makes by Parrish and Garzon, which there were six of.
“It was nice to see them (shots) go in because again, we got some really good looks that didn’t go down for us, that’s happened to us a lot this year,” Moren said. “It was finally good to see a lot of them going in tonight.”
Now riding a three-game winning streak, Indiana is going to play some better competition.
Currently on the right side of the bubble, Hoosier fans will get a taste of what they can expect come March from these next handful of matchups. Will the Hoosiers be able to beat some teams that are superior to them? Minus the two matchups versus Purdue, each team Indiana will face will be a top 40 NET opponent — Most notably Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State.
Indiana will be back in action at 3 p.m. Sunday against Minnesota at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
