In blue-out game to support Israel, IU women's basketball breezes by Stetson

BLOOMINGTON — IU women’s basketball breezed by Stetson at Assembly Hall on Sunday afternoon, 72-34, in one of its final tune-ups before Big Ten play.

IU will start conference play Saturday, traveling to Rutgers for the Big Ten opener.

Here are three observations from the Hoosiers’ victory:

Hoosiers struggle early on offensive glass

Head coach Teri Moren wasted no time making her thoughts known on the Hoosiers’ early rebounding efforts. Stetson grabbed the first five rebounds of the game — including four on the offensive glass — before Moren paced down the sideline to give pointed words to her players.

The Hoosiers started to shape up on the defensive glass after that, pulling down 20 rebounds by halftime. The Hatters still had a strong advantage on the offensive glass at halftime, though, outrebounding the Hoosiers 11-1. Luckily for Indiana, Stetson could only turn those 11 offensive rebounds into five second-chance points.

"I think we got a body on people, and then it would either go over our head, or we wouldn't go straight after it and it would get around us," senior Sydney Parrish said. "It was really just a toughness thing, and I think we just really needed to battle in the second half."

The Hoosiers barely pulled away in the total rebounding numbers, finishing with a 45-38 advantage on the glass. Stetson still finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds compared to Indiana's 10.

"I'm not very pleased with giving up 15 offensive rebounds to a team that's far smaller than we are," Moren said. "I thought there were possessions, especially in the first half right in front of our bench that we had inside position, and then we just didn't go get it, like we were waiting around for somebody else to go get it."

Shalosh, Garzon

Indiana University Hillel, the campus’ Jewish organization, held a blue out in support of sophomore guard Yarden Garzon and Israel at Sunday’s game.

Garzon, who is from Ra'anana, Israel, still has family in her home country, and she has been vocal about Israelis held hostage by Hamas since the Israel-Hamas war started Oct. 7. Each game, she wears a bracelet with a hostage’s name to bring awareness.

More: 'Bring them home.' Yarden Garzon wears bracelet for Israeli hostages during IU win

Fans donned shirts that read “We stand with Yarden, we stand with Israel” with a star of David in a basketball, including “Shalosh, Garzon” with her number on the back, and sat behind the south basket next to IU’s band.

"With everything that is going on at home in Israel, it's nice to know that so many people support me and my country," Garzon said. "I know how hard it is for people in Israel now, and it means the world to me."

Garzon put on a show for her supporters, as they erupted in cheers after she drained a 3-pointer in the south basket at the 1:55 mark of the first quarter, capping off a 12-2 run for Indiana.

Garzon finished the game with 14 points and four assists.

Defensive resurgence

IU has not had the defensive start to the season that it had hoped. Moren has been pushing her players to be more scrappy, setting limiting goals for each game in opponent's points and 3-pointers.

"Our defensive effort is kind of what we pride ourselves on at Indiana, so going into this game, we knew that they were really athletic drivers," senior Sydney Parrish said. "We made it a point that we need to be in our gaps and need to get stops early, and I think we did a really good job with that."

On Sunday, IU got back to its scrappy defense, with its only fault being the rebounding numbers. The Hoosiers allowed just 34 points throughout the game, a season-low -- IU allowed 43 points to Eastern Illinois in the season-opener.

Stetson made just three 3-pointers on 24 attempts, a 12.5% clip. The Hatters didn't shoot much better from the field at 19.4%.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU women's basketball beats Stetson in blue-out supporting Yarden Garzon