CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The trouble for Indiana women’s basketball started in the first quarter.
After senior guard Shay Ciezki scored on the Hoosiers’ first two possessions, Indiana fell behind 12-4 in three minutes. Just like that, Indiana’s chances to win its first Big Ten game of the season withered away.
A slow start has plagued Indiana in way too many games this season. A seven-point deficit to the University of Illinois Chicago at halftime, nine points scored in the first quarter against Marshall University, a three-point first quarter deficit to Florida Gulf Coast University and trailing Western Michigan University by five points when the first frame ended on Wednesday.
However, all of those games ended with wins for the Hoosiers. That wasn’t the case in Saturday’s 78-57 loss in Champaign, Illinois.
“Illinois just came out and punched us right in the mouth,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “We didn’t have a response, and we didn’t respond.”
It was as simple as that: Indiana didn’t respond.
The Fighting Illini were up 18-6 when Moren called her first timeout with 4:46 remaining in the first frame. When the buzzer sounded, Illinois had taken a 28-12 lead.
The ugly final scoreline for Indiana looks better than it could have been. The Fighting Illini had a 36-point lead by the end of the third quarter — an advantage that was larger than the number of points the Hoosiers scored: 32.
Indiana then went on a 12-0 run to open the fourth quarter that forced Illinois head coach Shauna Green to call a timeout. In total, the Hoosiers outscored the Fighting Illini 25-10 in the fourth quarter, but the effort was too late.
“Ugly” might not do the game justice. Take your pick from some synonyms to describe this outing: hideous, unpleasant, grotesque, disgusting or awful.
That’s a qualitative way to look at the game. Let’s look at the quantitative numbers.
Indiana shot 35.8% from the field and 35% from 3-point range. Illinois hit 47.9% of its shots, but only 28.6% of its 3-point attempts. The lack of 3-point shooting from the Fighting Illini didn’t matter. Illinois finished with 58 out of its 78 points coming from the paint.
The Hoosiers also gave up 20 turnovers, including six from redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont and five by Ciezki. The number was one shy of Beaumont’s season high — she had seven against Marshall — and tied Ciezki’s season high.
The only bright spot from Indiana was another 20-point performance from Ciezki, her eighth this season. She finished the game with 23 points on an 8-for-19 performance from the field and 1 for 6 on her 3-point attempts.
Ciezki played all 40 minutes — her second time doing so this season — but none of her attempts came easy. Illinois matched junior guard Jasmine Brown-Hagger on Ciezki, and the 5-foot-9 Brown-Hagger stuck to the 5-foot-7 Ciezki like glue.
“She's a great defender,” Ciezki said postgame. “... They were plugging up the paint a lot. They weren't overhelping. So, it was tough to find those kickouts tonight.”
The only place where Indiana shot well was from the free throw line, as the Hoosiers knocked down all 12 of their attempts. The scoring output for Indiana was also helped by Beaumont’s 15 points and junior forward Edessa Noyan’s 11. After that, the next highest scorer for the Hoosiers only produced three points.
Comparing those numbers to Illinois shows the discrepancy on the court. The Fighting Illini finished with seven of their eight players who saw playing time in the State Farm Center producing at least one point. Four of them were in double digits.
Looking at the bench production — a place where Indiana has struggled this season — Illinois had 20 points. Indiana had three. Only three players came off the bench for the Fighting Illini, with junior guard Maddie Webber scoring 16 points. Indiana had five bench players see action, but freshman forward Maya Makalusky’s 3-pointer with under a minute remaining in the game was the group’s only points.
“They got to figure it out,” Moren said postgame. “... Those bench players are supposed to come in and impact the game, first and foremost on the defensive side of the ball, but then just allow the game to come to them.”
It was a performance the Hoosiers will want to forget — or remember . Indiana must remember this game the next time they step on the floor against a Big Ten opponent, which doesn't happen again until Dec. 29 against Minnesota. But the Hoosiers can’t let this performance affect their confidence in any future games.
Indiana now goes back to nonconference play. The University of Louisiana at Monroe on Dec. 11, Eastern Michigan University on Dec. 14 and Western Carolina University on Dec. 21 close out the Hoosiers’ non-Big Ten slate.
“We have a new squad,” Ciezki said postgame. “... So this is just something that we can take and learn from and grow from it.”
Indiana needs to grow from this game. The Hoosiers’ sloppy play on both ends of the floor also has to be cleaned up. The good news is they have time to figure out any mistakes — which there were a lot of Saturday — and come into the remaining Big Ten schedule ready to be disruptive in the conference.
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.
