Let me start here: I was wrong about Indiana women’s basketball. Coming into the season, I didn’t see the Hoosiers finding their way into the NCAA tournament. There were too many new faces and questions on the roster.
However, I’ll be the first to admit it, Indiana looks like a team that can make noise in March. The Hoosiers lost their first game of the season Sunday against No. 10 Iowa State, but the 106-95 final score resulted in more positives than negatives for Indiana.
Positive: Shay Ciezki
The senior guard finished Sunday’s contest with 38 points on a 12-for-21 shooting performance from the field. Ciezki just missed her career-high 40 points that she set in her sophomore season at Penn State.
Ciezki helped Indiana stay neck-and-neck against Iowa State through most of the contest. She scored 13 out of the Hoosiers’ 24 points in the first quarter and knocked down clutch shots in the second frame to keep Indiana only three points behind the Cyclones at the half.
“The game plan at first was to really take advantage of that mid-range,” Ciezki said postgame. “Especially with their post player being in a low plug ... but they were stepping up pretty high, so we were able to go around them.”
By going “around them,” Ciezki got to the free throw line 14 times Sunday. It surpassed her record 13 free-throw attempt performance against Baylor last season. Ciezki leveraged her free throw attempts into 13 points, only missing one shot in the third quarter.
“Shay was incredible,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “I'm very, very, very proud of her because she has a heavy load, but there's nobody that wants that load more than Shay.”
Ciezki has been playing her way into an All-Big Ten caliber season — something I predicted before the first game. Ciezki is the main offensive option, and a showing like Sunday against a top 10 team shows she can push Indiana past tough opponents in Big Ten play.
Negative: Post defense against Audi Crooks
The Iowa State junior center entered Sunday’s game averaging 24.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Crooks is a household name in NCAA women’s basketball. She was named to the Naismith Trophy Watch List, Wooden Award Watch List and was Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year. Quite an impressive list.
Indiana knew it needed to shut down Crooks, but with sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen out due to a lower body injury, it was up to the bench to provide solid minutes.
However, Indiana couldn’t stop Crooks anywhere near the basket. The 6-foot-3 Crooks finished the game with an Iowa State record 47 points, while going 19-for-25 from the field and 9-for-11 from the free throw line.
Taming Crooks was a hard task, especially when junior forward Edessa Noyan got into foul trouble. Noyan had eight points and eight rebounds, but she reached four personal fouls with 2:26 remaining in the third quarter with the Hoosiers down 69-60.
“I thought Edessa was really good,” Moren said postgame. “We really challenged her to have to be physical ... Edessa came willing to fight for position and try to make things hard.”
Would this game have been different if Socka-Nguemen was out there? Probably. But Indiana saw action from sophomore forward Faith Wiseman and junior forward Jade Ondineme in her absence.
Both players haven’t played a lot this season — Wiseman played 14 minutes coming into Sunday’s game and Ondineme only had two minutes on the court. Now, Moren has expectations for her post players further down the bench.
Crooks had too many easy looks at the basket from inside the paint. It’s a problem Indiana will have to clean up defensively when playing Big Ten opponents with dominant post players such as UCLA, Michigan State, and Penn State.
Positive: Bench scoring
Indiana finished the game with 18 points from its bench, which outpaced Iowa State’s 10 points. It’s only the second time this season the Hoosiers received more bench points than their opposition. The first was the Nov. 28 game against Gonzaga University.
It’s a positive for Indiana to see its bench pieces start to flourish. Sunday, it was led by nine points from freshman forward Maya Makalusky and eight points from sophomore guard Phoenix Stotijn.
After breaking out last game with a 10-point performance, Makalusky followed it up with nine. She only attempted one shot from inside the 3-point arc — which she missed — and all of her points came from a 3-for-4 performance from range.
Makalusky had a tough start to her season after going 0-for-10 from 3, but her last two performances need to be a trend, not an outlier.
“I think that this is been a really good tournament for Maya,” Moren said postgame. “... that's really good for Maya, she needs that for her confidence. Maya has to continue to improve on the offensive end.”
Along with Makalusky’s improvement on the offensive end, Stotijn had a season-high eight points and finally knocked in her first 3-pointer of the season. Coming into Sunday’s game, Stotijn was 0-for-10 from range. That changed in the second quarter when Stotijn poured in two 3-pointers. It was the first time all season Stotijn looked confident in her shot.
Though these performances didn’t result in a win, the Hoosiers still scored 95 points against the No. 10 team in the country.
The trip to Fort Meyers, Florida, was a learning experience. Indiana picked up wins against Florida Gulf Coast University and Gonzaga, who are two above-average opponents. Indiana needs to turn this three-game stretch into growth going into its first Big Ten game of the season against Illinois on Dec. 6.
“I think it was Kelvin Sampson who said it the best. L's are not necessarily for losses, they’re for lessons,” Moren said postgame. “We are learning lessons inside of every game ... but one of the things I don't think you can quantify is just how hard this group plays.”
Indiana can take its first loss of the 2025-26 campaign and keep improving. The Hoosiers now know they can compete against one of the best teams in the country. That mentality needs to continue through December and beyond.
“I think teams are dying to play like this,” Ciezki said postgame. “They're dying to play like how we are right now at the end of November, in March.”
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.
