Last November, Indiana women’s basketball head coach Teri Moren and guard Sydney Parrish sat inside a room at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis visibly frustrated with what had happened just moments ago. Parrish seemed to be holding back tears as she sat to Moren’s left in front of the room of reporters.
The Hoosiers had just fallen by 10 points to Butler University in the third game of the season. Their 46 points scored were tied for the fewest in Moren’s tenure in Bloomington. Their 16 turnovers all came at inopportune times, and their 34% field goal percentage did not help.
“It’s game three, we’re fine,” Parrish said after the loss on Nov. 13, 2024. “It’s game three, we’re good. It sucks. It hurts. Hurt last game.”
So headed into the contest against Butler on Wednesday, it was a revenge game for Indiana, despite the completely different rosters for both the Hoosiers and the Bulldogs.
Now-senior guard Shay Ciezki was the only player on Indiana’s roster last year to play in Wednesday’s game, but she remembers how the loss felt, and so did Moren.
“I’ve been bitter since whatever that date was,” Moren said. “...Very bitter about that loss in Indianapolis.”
The emotions of the contest from a season ago translated into a 72-53 victory for Indiana on Wednesday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The Hoosiers sit at 5-0 after the win compared to when they fell to 1-2 after the loss to Butler a season ago.
It was a much different showing from the Hoosiers. While they still struggled with turnovers, recording 20 in the contest, it was combated by the fact Indiana shot 52% from the field with a 56% mark from 3-point range.
Redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont led the Hoosiers in scoring with 21 points. The Lisle, Illinois, native also grabbed five rebounds and dished out two assists. Ciezki — who had a team-high 11 points against the Bulldogs last season — was just behind Beaumont with 14 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
However, the box score isn’t the only place where there was drastic change from a season ago. Both the Hoosiers and the Bulldog’s rosters have been reconstructed in the last year, as Indiana returned just five players and Butler returned three.
However, Ciezki said last season's game was still a topic of conversation for her and the Hoosiers as they started preparing for the matchup.
“It’s kind of funny, though,” Ciezki said. “Butler has a whole new team, we have a whole new team, so I don’t know if they understood the revenge game behind it, but I sure did. I know coach Moren did. So, it felt good to go out there and win tonight.”
And not only does Indiana’s roster look completely different, but Moren speaks differently about the team, too.
On Wednesday, Moren said a season ago she was disappointed with how her team played and how they reacted to the loss to Butler. She thought the Hoosiers started to “pull apart” in the contest.
Moren has noted multiple times throughout the season that “sticks in a bundle are hard to break,” and she reiterated the statement again Wednesday, referring to the way last season’s roster was not playing together. However, Moren said she feels different about her current team.
Through five games this season, Indiana hasn’t had to face the challenges presented with its first loss of the season, but it’s faced adversity together. The Hoosiers struggled to shoot the ball in their wins over the University of Illinois Chicago and Marshall University. They faced a 9-point deficit in the third quarter to Florida State University. And despite the challenges, they’ve been able to pull off wins.
So, while there still may be concern surrounding Indiana’s new-look roster, especially come Big Ten play, the Hoosiers have proved the change has brought them a long way from where they were last season against Butler. Indiana has a new roster, a new record and was in a new location — this time far away from that room in Hinkle Fieldhouse where a disappointed Moren and Parrish sat side by side.
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.
