Heading into Wednesday night’s game against Butler University, Indiana women’s basketball struggled to shoot the basketball.
The Hoosiers shot 31.9% from 3-point range through their first four games, and on Sunday, they went 38.9% beyond the arc against Florida State University.
Indiana’s shooting problems reached a new low in its wins over Lipscomb University on Nov. 4 and Marshall University on Nov. 11, when the Hoosiers shot 20% and 21.4% from long range, respectively.
Indiana’s bench had been completely neutralized from distance. The bench shot 1 for 17 as a whole from 3-point range through four games, the only success coming from junior forward Edessa Noyan against Florida State. Freshman forward Maya Makalusky and sophomore guard Phoenix Stotijn shot 0 for 10 and 0 for 5, respectively.
Senior guard Shay Ciezki was the exception, shooting 10 for 21 beyond the arc through the first four games.
Against Florida State, however, redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont found success from beyond the 3-point line that Indiana needed, leading the Hoosiers to a 4-point victory. She recorded 23 points against the Seminoles.
In Indiana’s 72-53 victory over Butler on Wednesday night, Beaumont continued her shooting success from last game. She shot 4 for 5 from range against the Bulldogs, leading the Hoosiers in scoring in consecutive games with 21 points.
Besides Beaumont, Indiana found shooting 3-point success from multiple avenues. Ciezki shot 2 for 5, sophomore guard Valentyna Kadlecova went 2 for 3 and Makalusky made her first 3-point shot of the season in her only attempt.
Indiana shot 56.3% overall from 3-point range against Butler on Wednesday night. The Hoosiers shot better from distance than from the field overall, going 51.9% from the field.
Beaumont struggled early in the season from range, failing to make one of her seven attempts before going 3 for 3 against Florida State.
“I think I kind of had a slow start, obviously, to the year,” Beaumont said postgame Wednesday. “Looking back on it, I think I just needed to get my legs under me, be more comfortable. I know I wasn’t very confident out there and I’ll just say, give credit to the staff and my teammates because they poured confidence into me every single day.”
Indiana head coach Teri Moren also praised Beaumont’s shooting display Wednesday night.
“We really feel like she’s a three-level scorer,” Moren said post-game. “...I think that Beau’s just becoming more comfortable on the offensive side of the ball.”
Moren credited Indiana’s “enthusiastic” shootaround pregame to the performance Wednesday, saying that she “loved” the team’s start. Despite totaling 20 turnovers, a number still too high for Moren’s liking, the Hoosiers made major strides offensively in the days since their last home game against Marshall.
Indiana already proved it can win games without proper outside shooting in the games against Lipscomb and Marshall. However, Beaumont’s outside resurgence may act as a spark for the rest of the team.
Indiana’s next opponent, Florida Gulf Coast University, has had excellent perimeter defense to start the season, however, its opponents shooting 20.7% from beyond the arc through three games.
If Beaumont and Indiana can continue its shooting form, however, it could take a load off the entire team heading into a three-game stretch in Fort Myers, Florida.
“We always talk about, you see one shot go through, and it's like, ‘Alright, I can breathe a little bit’,” Ciezki said. “She’s (Beaumont) been hitting a ton of those, so it’s nice to sit back and watch sometimes.”
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.
