Indiana women’s basketball’s depth has been challenged to start the season. Of the 13 Hoosiers listed on the roster, five have been unavailable for at least one game this season.
Redshirt freshman forward Sydney Fenn was ruled out for the season after a knee surgery. Senior guard Jerni Kiaku missed the Hoosiers’ previous game against the University of Louisiana at Monroe on Thursday with a sickness. Sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen has missed the past five games with an injury, while sophomore forward Faith Wiseman has missed the past two games after getting hit in the jaw.
One more Hoosier appeared on the injury report Sunday ahead of their contest against Eastern Michigan University. Sophomore guard Valentyna Kadlecova was out for what Indiana head coach Teri Moren called personal reasons.
Without four Hoosiers — including two previous starters in Socka-Nguemen and Kadlecova — the lack of depth presented challenges for Indiana in its 74-67 win over Eastern Michigan on Sunday afternoon at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Indiana improved to 10-2 with its win over the Eagles.
The injuries have forced Indiana to look deeper into its bench at times. While junior forward Edessa Noyan has filled into the starting lineup for Socka-Nguemen, Wiseman’s injury further depleted the Hoosiers’ post position. At times, freshman forward Maya Makalusky has played down low, in addition to junior forward Jade Ondineme, who has seen limited time on the court off the bench.
It made stopping Eastern Michigan senior forward/center Sisi Eleko difficult on Sunday. Eleko, who averaged 10.7 rebounds per game ahead of the contest, corralled 18 rebounds against the Hoosiers and added 15 points.
Ondineme played seven minutes for Indiana on Sunday, which marked a season high for the Orleans, France, native. She picked up two rebounds and two steals in those minutes. Redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont praised Ondineme postgame for taking advantage of the minutes she saw on the court, and Moren did, too.
“Today, Jade did exactly what we needed her to do,” Moren said. “She didn’t try to do anything out of the ordinary. She did not try to do anything that she wasn’t capable of. She did exactly, especially defensively, what we needed her to do.”
After missing the win over ULM, Kiaku returned to the Hoosiers’ lineup against the Eagles and also provided meaningful minutes off the bench. She recorded just five points and one rebound in 14 minutes played. However, she served as another option for Indiana, especially when other players were tagged with fouls or needed to rest.
But the two positive performances off the bench weren’t enough for Indiana to cruise past Eastern Michigan, a Mid-American Conference team that went 2-27 a season ago. Sophomore guard Phoenix Stotijn was the only other player to play off the bench for Indiana, and she tallied just one point, three rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes.
While players like Kiaku and Ondineme provided impactful minutes, the short bench has still led Moren to play her starters more than she typically would. Senior guard Shay Ciezki played the entire 40 minutes of Sunday’s game, just as she did against Illinois on Dec. 6. Two other Hoosiers, Beaumont and freshman guard Nevaeh Caffey, logged over 34 minutes against the Eagles.
The high volume for certain players has made Moren more aware of their load management, making her reevaluate the intensity and frequency of practices combined with the heavy minutes players are having on the court.
“There’s no doubt, between sickness and being banged up, that we’re banged up,” Moren said postgame. “When you don’t have the depth, right, you got to really manage what you do in practice. Like I said, those kids that are playing a lot of heavy minutes, you really got to be careful.”
While injuries have led to struggles on certain areas of the floor, like the front court, Moren is confident the minutes her players are receiving now will only help Indiana down the stretch. The in-game opportunities in nonconference games will give the Hoosiers more options off the bench when high-volume players need rest, especially in Big Ten play.
Indiana needed more options in its first conference contest against Illinois, when it suffered a 21-point loss to the Fighting Illini and struggled to generate offense and contain the interior. The Hoosiers have one final nonconference game — a matchup against Western Carolina University on Dec. 21 — before resuming Big Ten play against Minnesota on Dec. 29.
Whether the Hoosiers' missing pieces will be back for the conference games or not, the lack of depth will need to be addressed if Indiana wants to pick up wins against Big Ten opponents.
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.
