Last season, there were flashes of then-junior guard Shay Ciezki’s potential for Indiana women’s basketball. A 34-point game against Baylor University, 20 points against Oakland University and Northwestern, plus a nine-game streak of 10-plus point performances to end the season.
The potential was there, but Ciezki’s consistency wasn’t. She put up 0 points against Oregon in 27 minutes, then followed up that performance with two points in 34 minutes against Washington.
A microcosm of the ups and downs for Ciezki can be seen when looking at a four-game stretch from Nov. 17-25, 2024. She scored 19 points against Stanford University, two points against Columbia University, an aforementioned 34 versus Baylor and rounded out the stretch with five points against the University of North Carolina.
However, there were enough ups for Ciezki last season for her to finish second in points per game for Indiana at 11.8. Now, with eight of the 10 leading scorers from last season no longer in Bloomington, this season is a chance for the now-senior to increase her role for the Hoosiers.
Ciezki has taken the increase in her scoring role and run with it, not looking back at last season.
After Wednesday’s 71-53 win over Western Michigan University, it was another game for Indiana in which Ciezki led the Hoosiers in scoring — her seventh this season. Ciezki finished the contest with 26 points on a 12-for-17 mark from the field, and she went 2 for 5 beyond the arc.
And for Ciezki, it was a mostly consistent performance. She started the game off with eight points in the first quarter before rattling off seven, four and seven in the other three quarters.
“The way she’s been playing has just been so important for our team,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “... she has strong shoulders, because she’s carried us from an offensive perspective in a lot of those games.”
Only two other Hoosiers have scored the most points in a game this season. Against Marshall University, it was sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen — who hasn’t played the last two games — and redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont against Florida State University and Butler University.
But for Ciezki, it’s been four consecutive games at the top of the points category. She produced 26 against Florida Gulf Coast University on Nov. 25, 24 versus Gonzaga University on Nov. 28 and 38 against No. 10 Iowa State on Nov. 30.
In total, Ciezki is leading the Big Ten in points per game at 24.4, just in front of Penn State redshirt junior center Gracie Merkle’s 23 points per game — the pair barely missed playing with each other in State College, Pennsylvania, after they transferred to their respective schools two offseasons ago.
Last season, it was 46.3% shooting from the field and a 39.2% mark from 3-point range. This season, Ciezki’s at 55.9% from the field and 44.9% from 3-point range, plus a 92.3% free throw percentage. If those numbers hold — I know it’s early — she would join the coveted 50-40-90 club, something that has only happened one other time in NCAA women’s basketball. That’s an absurd shooting leap.
“I try to pride myself on improving every day, every month, every year,” Ciezki said postgame Wednesday. “I don't think my leap was as big as people think. This year, they just needed me to have a bigger role, and that's where I stepped into.”
Well fine, I guess it wasn’t that big of a leap. But for Indiana, she’s correct, it needed someone to rise to the occasion on the court. With questions surrounding other players on the roster, Ciezki has slotted into the No. 1 spot on the offensive side of the ball, and the numbers back that up.
“Numbers are numbers at the end of the day,” Ciezki said postgame. “A win is better.”
Ciezki scored 38 points last game against Iowa State — just shy of her career-high 40 points — but the Hoosiers did not pick up another check in the win column. However, on Wednesday, it was still 26 points, but this time it resulted in a victory.
That winning mentality is needed — not just for Indiana — but for Ciezki’s prospectus to play in the WNBA.
“She wants to play at that next level,” Moren said postgame. “I think she's proving every night that she goes out that she can play at the next level, and she's just doing it in different ways.”
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Ciezki’s scoring role for Indiana has been all over the court. She’s been able to drive to the basket but has also knocked down shots from mid-range and 3-point range.
Aside from scoring, Ciezki has totaled 26 assists for the Hoosiers this season, just behind Beaumont’s team-high 28. She’s also hauled in 4.2 rebounds per contest, including a 10-rebound performance against Marshall on Nov. 11.
Indiana has needed Ciezki to win games this season, and she will continue to do that for the Hoosiers. Ciezki’s played every single season of her collegiate career in the Big Ten, so with a conference game against Illinois on Saturday, it should be another game with Ciezki producing 20-plus points for Indiana.
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.
