There was a lot of good in Indiana women’s basketball’s 82-64 victory over Florida Gulf Coast University on Tuesday in Fort Myers, Florida. The Hoosiers had an 18-point win, a 10-of-18 performance from 3-point range and a season-high 17 assists.
However — and excuse me for sounding like a broken record — Indiana got itself in foul trouble. It was a season-high 30 fouls Tuesday, a problem that head coach Teri Moren wants to see eradicated.
“I mean, as simply as I can put it ... I don’t want to foul,” Moren said postgame. “A third of their points came off the foul line.”
The quick math from Moren is close to being correct. Florida Gulf Coast had 20 points off free throws, which was 31.25% of the Eagles’ total points during the game. Just shy of the third that Moren stated, but still, her argument about Indiana’s fouls is accurate.
The Hoosiers foul too much, and it’s been a problem even before the regular season started.
Even in Indiana's first game of its 2025-26 campaign against the Missouri University of Science and Technology, a Division II opponent, Indiana compiled 25 fouls.
Six Hoosiers had three or more personal fouls against the Miners, with sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen and junior forward Edessa Noyan both having four. However, the foul trouble didn’t affect Indiana, as the Hoosiers cruised to a 100-32 exhibition victory.
It was a problem that I wrote about after the win, and Moren talked about in the postgame press conference.
“I wanted them to be aggressive defensively, without fouling,” Moren said postgame after Missouri S&T. “... we can't foul as much as we did tonight, and so we'll go back and work on that.”
It was a problem that I thought would’ve been fixed six games into the season. However, it hasn’t been fixed, but does it still matter if the Hoosiers keep on winning games?
I’ll answer my own question here. Yes, it matters, and it matters a lot.
The foul problem has come up time and time again this season for Indiana. It was 21 fouls against Lipscomb University on Nov. 4, 28 against Florida State University on Nov. 16, 22 against Butler University on Nov. 19 and now, 30 against Florida Gulf Coast.
“We had two kids, one fouled out in eight minutes, the other kid fouled out in 14 minutes,” Moren said postgame. “That just can’t happen.”
The first “kid” Moren is referring to is Noyan. She was coming off back-to-back performances of a season-high eight points — which drew praise from Moren — but her momentum came crashing back down Tuesday after a 0-point, three-rebound stat line.
The second “kid” is freshman forward Maya Makalusky. Like Noyan, Makalusky had a career-high seven points and shot 3 for 3 from the field in the Hoosiers’ last game against Butler. On Tuesday, Makalusky did not score a point and went 0 for 2 from 3-point range.
Those were two bench performances that Indiana will want to forget about, but their starting counterparts didn’t get into foul trouble. Right?
Well, the 30 fouls had to come from somewhere. Socka-Nguemen produced four fouls, while sophomore guard Valentyna Kadlecova also had four. It resulted in a season-low nine-point performance from Socka-Nguemen and only five points from Kadlecova.
“(Socka-Nguemen) has to quit fouling,” Moren said postgame. “She has to be able to guard better without fouling, so that's where she has to grow for us.”
The fouls clearly got into Socka-Nguemen's head, but they also affected the Hoosiers as a whole.
Indiana picked up eight early fouls in the first quarter, two of them going to freshman guard Nevaeh Caffey, and another duo accredited to Noyan. For Caffey, she only played five minutes in the first half and a season-low 18 total minutes.
But, aside from the fouls, it was an impressive performance from Indiana. Senior guard Shay Ciezki produced a game-high 26 points, and redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont continued her scorching hot 3-point shooting after going 5 of 5 for 23 points.
The Hoosiers outscored Florida Gulf Coast 21-12 in the second quarter and 28-10 in the third. Performances like today aren’t unusual for Indiana, as the Hoosiers keep locking in the right moments to continue their undefeated start to the season — the last time they started 6-0 was the 2022-23 campaign.
However, the games will only continue to get tougher as the season progresses. In the 2025 GEICO Coconut Hoops tournament, Indiana matches up against Gonzaga University at 1:30 p.m. Friday before playing No. 10 Iowa State University or Marquette University on Sunday.
Those are opponents that will capitalize on opportunities from the free-throw line. The Hoosiers have shown the ability to bully past mid-major opponents, even when they get into foul trouble, but Moren must be able to trust her players — especially the starters — to stay on the court.
“I want us to play with aggression, but we can still play with aggression without fouling,” Moren said postgame. “... we have to have just more common sense of what is a bad foul.”
But as the saying goes, “common sense is not so common.” And for Indiana, it will become harder to win if the Hoosiers keep putting themselves into foul trouble.
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.
