Dominating win shows when IU women's basketball clicks, it can be unstoppable
BLOOMINGTON — Thursday night, IU women’s basketball showed what it’s capable of. The No. 14 Hoosiers produced their most-complete game of the season, hammering Michigan, 80-59, at Assembly Hall.
This was the same Michigan team that less than a week ago beat then-No. 17 Ohio State. A Michigan team that always contends with the teams at the top of the Big Ten.
It was never a close game, either. IU (12-1, 3-0) went a perfect 13-of-13 from the floor in the first quarter (which included 14 points from senior Sydney Parrish) for a 36-17 lead. Indiana’s 36 points in the first quarter were the most since it scored 42 against Iowa in the fourth quarter on Feb. 19, 2022. The Hoosiers didn’t miss a shot until their 16th attempt, becoming the first Division I women’s program to start a game 15-of-15 from the field since 1999.
More: IU makes first 15 shots, breezes past Michigan for 11th straight win
"Nothing surprises me with this group in terms of their ability to knock down shots," IU coach Teri Moren said. "We knew we were going to cool down, though... The great thing is that we built a lead, and Michigan had to chase us."
IU's only loss came to Stanford on the road in November, but Moren is still looking for more from the team that won the Big Ten just a season ago.
“This is a very mature group, a very veteran group,” she said. “They’ve been in a lot of high-level, intense games, and we understand this league and how good it is, and how important it is to be able to protect your home floor. It gets daunting when you go on the road in this league.”
This season’s Hoosiers haven’t been as gritty or as balanced in scoring as last year, and a lot of IU’s early struggles came from the departure of Grace Berger, who was a reliable scorer alongside senior Mackenzie Holmes. With Berger now in the WNBA, the Hoosiers were relying on Holmes to do the bulk of the scoring to begin the season.
Now, her teammates have stepped up. Someone other than Holmes has had a splashy game in the past three games — Sara Scalia scored 32 points against Bowling Green on Dec. 22, Chloe Moore-McNeil returned to form against Illinois on Dec. 31, and Parrish paced the Hoosiers on Thursday night.
“We’ve had different people show up and step up,” Moren said. “We’ve had three kids that have had 30-point games, we’re getting our scoring not just from Mack — she’s a big part of what we do, and draws so much attention. But I really liked how we shared the ball, we’re averaging over 20 assists per game, and our ability to recognize who’s hot and get them the ball.”
More: Teri Moren told Chloe Moore-McNeil to be more aggressive. Message received vs. Illinois.
The main thing Moren still isn’t convinced of? Her team’s defense.
IU had arguably its best defensive performance of the season Thursday night, holding Michigan to 59 points — less than two points more than IU’s average scoring defense of 57.8 points this season.
“We’ve showed signs of the grittiness, the toughness that we had a year ago, and we’re moving in a direction that we see moments, a lot of good moments where we’re stingy,” Moren said. “We stack up 3-4 possessions where we get stops, and that’s what we want to do. We want to stack up.”
But the defense, as evidenced by this victory, is getting better.
IU has vastly improved since its loss to Stanford. And if the Hoosiers can (even slightly) replicate what they did against the Wolverines to the rest of the league, watch out: the Hoosiers are coming.
“We know how important every single game is in the Big Ten,” Holmes said. “We can’t have an off night, not in this conference. We had some growing pains along the way early in the season, but that’s the past now. We’re a completely different team.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Insider: When IU women’s basketball clicks, it could be unstoppable
