Indiana women’s basketball is one-third of the way through its Big Ten schedule and is still looking for its first conference win.
The Hoosiers most recently fell to then-No. 14 Iowa 56-53 on Sunday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The loss came after Indiana blew a 16-point halftime lead and dropped to 11-7 on the season and 0-6 in the Big Ten.
Despite the losses, Indiana head coach Teri Moren said her young team needs to remain focused on the process of winning games, not the results themselves.
“And the process is about what it’s going to take to be successful, right?” Moren said on the Inside IU Basketball radio show Monday. “... Like what are those things we have to do to give ourselves a chance or put ourselves in a position to have success?”
The Hoosiers have a chance to once again test their process against Washington (12-4, 2-3 Big Ten) at 7 p.m. Wednesday inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
After missing eight straight games with injury, sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen made her return to the Hoosiers’ lineup in their 82-67 loss to then-No. 7 Maryland on Jan. 4. She made her first start since the injury in Indiana's five-point defeat to then-No. 25 Nebraska four days later.
Socka-Nguemen, who averaged 13 points and nine rebounds per game before her injury, scored 12 points and collected 12 rebounds against the Hawkeyes.
Senior guard Shay Ciezki has proved to be the most impactful scorer for the Hoosiers this season. The 5-foot-7 Ciezki leads the Big Ten in points per game with 23.2.
However, Ciezki’s offensive production has not yet been able to push the Hoosiers to a conference win this season because of a lack of production from Indiana’s other guards.
Redshirt sophomore Lenée Beaumont began to emerge as one of the Hoosiers’ second options scoring wise through the nonconference schedule, but she’s been inconsistent in Indiana’s most recent games, putting up zero points against Nebraska and five against Iowa.
“It’s really hard to run a good offense if you don’t have a post presence, and ‘Z’ (Socka-Nguemen) provides that for us,” Moren said. “Like I said, it’s going to help us in so many ways, both offensively and defensively. But I do think having ‘Z’ back and having her presence on the low block will take some of the pressure off of kids like Shay, but also some of those other guards.”
Defensively, Indiana will have a difficult matchup against Washington’s Sayvia Sellers. The 5-foot-7 junior guard averages 18.6 points per game — which ranks seventh in the Big Ten — off 47% shooting from the field and 38.7% from 3-point range.
The Huskies are one of the most efficient 3-point shooting teams in the conference, as their mark of 36.5% ranks fourth in the Big Ten. Sophomore guard Avery Howell, who averages 13.5 points per game, leads Washington in 3-point percentage, shooting 43.5% on 92 attempts from beyond the arc.
Washington first entered the Associated Press’ top-25 pool in Week 2 after being the first team out of the rankings in Week 1. A 12-2 record kept the Huskies ranked through Week 9; however, a 15-point loss to then-No. 15 Michigan State and six-point, overtime defeat to Purdue dropped Washington out of the most recent rankings released Monday.
Prior to the losses to Michigan State and Purdue, the Huskies had only fallen to then-No. 16 USC and Stanford University. Their two conference wins came over Northwestern and then-No. 6 Michigan.
Tipoff between the Hoosiers and the Huskies is slated for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and will stream on Big Ten+.
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.
