Indiana women’s basketball’s new faces have been talked about time and time again this offseason. Six transfer portal additions and two freshmen joined the program.
Even with fresh names, Indiana got crucial minutes together from its starting five. The Hoosiers banded together to open the 2025-26 campaign 1-0 in an 80-46 win over Lipscomb University, but Indiana will have to clean up screwups on either end of the floor.
“I do think that this is a group that's still learning to play with each other, learning to build chemistry,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame.
It was the same starting lineup for Indiana on Tuesday, as in the Hoosiers’ preseason exhibition win over Missouri University of Science and Technology. The continuity will help Indiana later in the season if Moren keeps the same five out of the floor to open more games.
Every starter played over 21 minutes, with sophomore guard Valentyna Kadlecova having the lowest time on court with 22. Senior guard Shay Ciezki and freshman guard Nevaeh Caffey reached 30 minutes, something that the 12th-year head coach has a habit of doing.
Last season, four starters had 30 or more minutes played per game. That has been the magic number for Moren-coached squads. Two seasons ago, the starters averaged 30, and in 2022-23, they averaged the same total minutes.
It would take until 3:45 left in the game with a 31-point lead before Moren made a hockey-style line change to bring in players further down the bench.
“I wanted to see a bigger fight from those starters,” Moren said. “We wanted to give those guys those reps to figure out some things defensively.”
Ciezki was the only holdover from last season’s starting lineup. She finished the contest with 22 points on an 8-of-17 shooting performance, but her contribution was also seen off the court.
Ciezki was involved in leading the pregame talk before the Hoosiers took the floor for the first time in the regular season. Moren watched intensely from outside the huddle, but she knew the second-year Hoosier could relate to her teammates.
“I take a lot of pride in that,” Ciezki said postgame. “I think we're all very vocal leaders. I think coach just put that on us very early to be a high-level communication team, and I think you're just going to see more and more of it.”
Sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen and redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont were the other two starters for the Hoosiers. Socka-Nguemen finished the contest with 25 minutes played, and Beaumont was in for 29.
Some of those minutes were surprising for Beaumont after she picked up her fourth foul of the contest with 8:06 left in the game. Even though Indiana was leading 67-39, it would take Moren until 3:45 on the clock to pull the Lisle, Illinois, native out of the game.
It makes sense, as the time together on the floor for four out of five starters was more important than the sizable advantage. Freshman forward Maya Makalusky — who finished the game with 14 minutes played — was in the game for Kadlecova.
The starting five did their job on the court, as they jumped out to a 19-6 lead halfway through the first quarter before Moren made her first change. Caffey and Kadlecova were out, Makalusky and sophomore guard Phoenix Stotijn were in.
It looks like Stotijn will be the first one substituted in for the guard group, Makalusky for the forwards, and junior forward Edessa Noyan for the bigs. Stotijn played 20 minutes, scoring 6 points, while Noyan had 2 points in 14 minutes. Moren does not like going deep into her bench for important minutes, so the trio will have to contribute in their limited time on the court.
Going back to the starting group, the scoreboard shows it was a dominant performance, but they still must clean up their mistakes. Indiana football has the Richards’ Report Card, but Moren didn’t any outside help to grade her team’s performance:
“I would give us a solid 'C’ tonight defensively,” Moren said. “We have a lot of work to do still on that side of the ball.”
The Hoosiers forced 18 turnovers and limited Lipscomb to 29.8% shooting from the field and a 4-of-23 performance behind the 3-point line. The Bisons had a turnover percentage of 18.9% last season, and Indiana jumped that number up to 25.7%.
However, the Hoosiers will have to clean up miscommunications when switching on screens and letting opposing players cut to an open basket. Lipscomb’s largest unanswered scoring run was 7 points in the third quarter, but many teams will take that performance when playing an opposing program that finished with 20 wins last season.
On the other end of the floor, Indiana’s offense needs to improve its 3-of-15 mark from behind the 3-point line if it wants to compete against more athletic teams. Although it is good to know that the Hoosiers can find ways to score when their shooting from deep is not connecting; Indiana finished the game with 56 points in the paint and 23 fastbreak points.
“It takes time to learn to play with one another,” Moren said. “I think it's just some growing pains that we're going to have to watch.”
Those growing pains can be figured out in the Hoosiers' next two contests against the University of Illinois Chicago on Nov. 7 and Marshall University on Nov. 11. However, Indiana does not have a lot of time, as Florida State University on Nov. 16 can pounce on any remaining issues.
Follow reporters Savannah Slone (@savrivers06 and srslone@iu.edu) and Max Schneider (maxschn@iu.edu) and columnist Sean McAvoy (@sean_mc07 and semcavoy@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
