Why Indiana women’s basketball looked like NCAA title contender in comeback win over PSU

BLOOMINGTON — The start of the Indiana women’s basketball game against Penn State on Wednesday night reminded coach Teri Moren of her team’s upset loss to Miami in last year’s NCAA tournament.

Moren said the Nittany Lions just “jumped on us” with an up-tempo offense and defensive pressure that left her players scrambling for answers, but the Hoosiers flipped the script in the second half to erase a nine-point deficit en route to a 75-67 win to extend a 13-game win streak.

​​"They all aren't as pretty as we would like them to be," Moren said. "They really made us uncomfortable."

Indiana women’s basketball leans on defense to spark second-half comeback

The turning point came when No. 14 Indiana (14-1, 5-0 Big Ten) held PSU (10-5; 1-3) without a field goal during a pivotal five-plus minute stretch while forcing four turnovers in the third quarter.

Much of the heavy lifting on offense during that stretch came from starting guard Sydney Parrish, who scored nine points during an 11-1 run, but it was a total team effort on defense that made the difference.

Indiana guard Sara Scalia intercepted a pass, Chloie Moore-McNeil stripped the ball and Mackenzie Holmes was a force down low against Ali Brigham. Sophomore Lilly Meister did the same when she gave Holmes a rest while her classmate Lexus Bargesser was effective against PSU’s talented backcourt.

It helped Indiana jump out to a 47-46 lead with 3:47 to go, the ninth and final lead change of the game.

Parrish, the defending Big Ten Player of the Week, knocked down a 3-pointer then drew an offensive foul on the other end with 6:27 to go. The effort drew a standing ovation from Assembly Hall.

She finished with 20 points and six rebounds — it was the first time she had 20 or more points in back-to-back games — while Holmes added another double-double with a team-high 21 points and 13 rebounds.

Penn State’s comeback efforts were hampered as it went five-plus minutes without a field goal down the stretch and had only three field goals in the entire fourth quarter. It losed out the second half shooting 29.6% (8 of 27) and had more turnovers than field goals in the half.

"That's how we are going to beat teams," Parrish said. "I think down the stretch our defense was a lot better, we weren't letting them get threes up and the way they would score was just getting to the line, if we just limit those fouls at the rim, we are going to be good."

IU women's basketball plays ‘mad’ down the stretch to win 13th straight

The Hoosiers had a season-high eight blocks and tied a season-high with 11 steals. They held a strong Nittany Lions perimeter shooting team to 3 of 10 shooting from 3-point range (they were 0 for 4 in the second half).

Moren, who hasn't shy about criticizing her team’s defense even as they were winning games by 40-plus points during the non-conference portion of the schedule, isn’t letting up on her team even though they showed flashes of how she wants them to be on Wednesday night.

"We played mad, which was good," Moren said. “We just got to take pride in guarding one-on-one, we stood around a lot, we weren’t in our gaps, we didn’t give any kind of support to our teammates, we got a little bit better in the second, but just by a little.”

While the Hoosiers built their current win streak by shooting teams off the floor — it came into the game ranked first in the country in field goal percentage — they had its second worst shooting performance of the season (42.4%) against PSU.

The clutch 3-pointers that have fallen at ease in recent weeks were nowhere to be found, but the grit and determination that could make Indiana a national title contender was.

“We’ll learn from that,” Moren said.

Moren’s team will now turn its attention to a heavyweight showdown this weekend when it travels to No. 3 Iowa.

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU women's basketball finds winning formula in comeback against PSU