It was a magical day in the sports world.
Lionel Messi, a bonafide deity in the hearts of Argentinians, cemented himself as perhaps the greatest soccer player in history after propelling his nation to a World Cup win early Sunday. With an entire country on his narrow shoulders, yearning to break a 36-year title drought, he delivered a masterpiece.
Just an hour after the thrilling penalty shootout conclusion, all eyes turned to Assembly Hall for the highly-anticipated matchup of No. 4 Indiana women’s basketball and Morehead State University of the vaunted Ohio Valley Conference.
The Eagles’ backcourt pairing of junior Sandra Lin and senior Veronica Charles, who both stand at 5’4”, had an opportunity to complete an upset of Herculean proportions. Against the comparatively towering Hoosiers, though, they were utterly overwhelmed.
Indiana was obviously a far superior team. A blowout was certainly to be expected. Senior forward Mackenzie Holmes, who consistently picked on undersized Eagles, notched the first six points of the contest. The Eagles’ fate was all but sealed at that point.
There were 15 seconds of tied basketball. I then blinked, and shortly thereafter, the Hoosiers jumped to a 26-4 advantage. It was like watching a big sibling mercilessly bully a younger, vastly smaller child on a mini hoop. When the Eagles finally ventured inside the paint and had a promising look, they would subsequently be blocked or dispossessed by an Indiana defender.
Even if the Kentucky visitors recorded consecutive unanswered buckets — which seldom occurred — the Hoosiers stormed back to ruthlessly subdue any granular ounce of momentum. On offense, there were barrages of 3-pointers, hot potato-esque ball movement and plain old physical back-to-the-basket play from the bigs.
When Indiana was on defense, you had to empathize a little with the Eagles. I mean, they really stood little chance of scoring outside of long-range heaves. As Indiana men’s basketball senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis might say, the Hoosiers were “constrictive, like an anaconda.”
What was most impressive, though, was how the defense performed so well. According to coach Teri Moren, their approach is, “very vanilla.” There are no exotic coverages or schemes – it’s just disciplined and organized basketball. Morehead State failed to score double-digit points in any of the four quarters, and its 24 total points were the lowest a Moren-led team has ever allowed.
To dive a little deeper, the Eagles shot 18% on field goals, 22% from beyond the arc and 25% from the free throw line. They committed a whopping 25 turnovers – a majority of which were forced – and were blocked six times.
“I’m old, right. I’ve been doing it for a long time. The one thing we always felt we could rely on is our grittiness defensively,” Moren said after the game. “That’s where we hang our hat. We feel like we can control a lot of things on that end.”
Every game, Moren sets specific goals for her team. One of Sunday’s was staying under 11 turnovers. The Hoosiers committed 12. She expressed disappointment, an unexpected reaction after recording the third-largest margin of victory in program history.
“Anytime we get to play everybody that’s a really cool day for us,” Moren said. “Especially in the second half, when you have a lead like that, one of the challenges to your group is trying to play clean. I liked how we stayed focused on trying to play like we practice.”
While the Eagles’ point total was the lowest surrendered in Moren’s tenure, the Hoosiers conceded just 15 points in a game in the 1972-73 season. Upon hearing that piece of information, Moren created a new benchmark.
“Dang it. So we still got work to do,” she said jokingly. “Fifteen is the goal”
A little over midway through the second quarter, two Eagles jumped to snag a defensive rebound on a missed Indiana shot. The players seemingly fought with each other for the board, and then were subsequently called for a travel call. It was a comical play, and one that proved that even with the Hoosiers playing their best, nothing at all could go Morehead State’s way on Sunday.
Truthfully, there’s little to glean from the 87-24 rout. Indiana is good, and that isn’t particularly new information. We are watching a top-five team now, and taking care of a team like Morehead State is a requisite. One note I can add, however, was the intrigue of the different lineups.
Because of the score line, Moren was able to let freshmen Lexus Bargessser, Lilly Meister and Henna Sandvik get some extended run, and they performed well. Indiana added 24 points off the bench, displaying that they can indeed get some production outside of the starting five.
With Big Ten play on the horizon, there’s hardly anything to complain about. After all, there’s still a zero in the loss column.
