'She's as tough as they come.' With Sydney Parrish out, Chloe Moore-McNeil steps up with career high

WEST LAFAYETTE — Chloe Moore-McNeil knew she needed to step up this time around.

Following IU’s nine-day break in late December, head coach Teri Moren told her senior starter that she needed to be more aggressive offensively. While Moore-McNeil prides herself as a pass-first player, Moren wanted her to shoot more.

In IU’s first game following that chat, Moore-McNeil scored a career-high 19 points.

“She gives us her best, and what I love about Chloe is that she owns her mistakes as well,” Moren said. “I think that shows maturity from a young person who can say, ‘My bad’ in those moments, but I think we are so happy that she runs this team.”

Now, just three weeks later, Moore-McNeil had to step up again. Starting guard Sydney Parrish suffered a right leg injury in practice on Friday, leaving IU down a starter.

3 reasons: Chloe Moore-McNeil, Sara Scalia step up, lead Indiana women's basketball past Purdue

Parrish, who averages 10.7 points per game, was a big loss. Somebody had to make up those points, and Moore-McNeil recognized that her play was essential. No pregame chat needed.

“We all kind of mentally prepared ourselves to do a little bit more with Syd being out,” Moore-McNeil said when asked if Moren talked with her.

Moore-McNeil, along with Sara Scalia, played the full 40 minutes for the first time this season in No. 16 IU’s nail-biting, 74-68 win over Purdue.

In those 40 minutes, Moore-McNeil had multiple jobs. First, she needed to guard the Boilermakers’ best offensive player. Second, she needed to run the offense. Third, she needed to make up for Parrish’s absence.

On Sunday, she balanced all of those things perfectly.

“She’s as tough as they come, right,” Moren said. “She’s reliable, and I trust her with not just the decisions that she’s able to make on the floor, but we trust her with having the assignment to guard the opposing best offensive player.”

More: 'This is not normal.' How Sara Scalia became one of the Big Ten's best 3-point shooters.

Moore-McNeil scored a career-high 20 points, sharing the team lead with Scalia. Moore-McNeil’s 20 came on 7-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

The senior also showed why she’s the Hoosiers’ best defender, quieting the Mackey Arena crowd when it was likely at its loudest.

After Purdue freshman Rashuda Jones got the Boilermakers within two points near the end of the third quarter, Mackey got even louder when Scalia missed a 3-pointer. Jones grabbed the ball and headed to the basket, but Moore-McNeil came in stride, cleanly hitting the ball out of her hands.

In the fourth quarter, Moore-McNeil struck again, putting the dagger in Purdue’s comeback hopes with a step-back 3-pointer as the shot clock expired, giving IU a six-point lead with 4 minutes left. The Hoosiers never surrendered that lead.

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“What I think Chloe is so good at is making extra passes and cutting when you want to help off of her,” Purdue head coach Katie Gearlds said. “...I just saw her in the hallway and said, ‘That step-back was nasty.’”

IU is not sure how long Parrish will be out — Moren said she will have another doctor’s appointment on Monday. For now, the Hoosiers will continue to need Moore-McNeil to score.

It’s nothing new for the senior. She, along with the rest of the Hoosiers, had to readjust when star Grace Berger missed seven games with an injury last season.

“I think we all had the same mindset of with Syd being out, we all needed to do a little bit more,” Moore-McNeil said. “We kind of did the same thing last year with Grace Berger, so adversity is nothing new to us.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women's basketball: Chloe Moore-McNeil sets career high