If you’re an avid reader of my columns, you might remember me ending my last one Thursday with a comparison: Indiana is to a Big Ten win what Sisyphus is to a rock. But it turns out, Indiana women’s basketball was finally able to get up the hill.
The Hoosiers carried a 30-3 first quarter lead into an 89-75 conference victory over Northwestern on Sunday, the first for Indiana this season.
A win in the Big Ten was bound to happen eventually. Between the talent on Indiana’s roster and its coaching staff, the Hoosiers were going to break through at some point this season.
However, the way Indiana was able to win — especially the 30-0 scoring run in the first and start of the second quarter — was unexpected. For the Hoosiers, the unexpected needs to become expected.
Indiana is now 1-10 in the Big Ten standings, a mark that leaves little room for error during the final seven games of the regular season. Crucial games against Purdue, Rutgers and Penn State must be added to the win column if the Hoosiers have any chance of making the 15-team Big Ten tournament.
But a question needs to be asked: Can Indiana replicate this game?
“We just got to carry that forward,” Indiana senior guard Shay Ciezki said postgame Sunday. “I think with this team, like we make good strides, but now we got to keep carrying it forward.”
It’s pivotal to hear one of the Hoosiers’ vocal leaders and the best player on the roster say that after a win. Indiana knows that it can’t be complacent. After the Hoosiers’ 95-67 loss to Michigan on Thursday, redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont said that the team was “in a desperate need for a win.”
That desperation paid off on Sunday. But the mentality can’t be forgotten against a feisty Wisconsin team Wednesday and another matchup against Purdue — who bested Indiana 80-69 on Jan. 25 — on the horizon.
For the here and now, both Ciezki and Beaumont were crucial in the Hoosiers’ victory Sunday. Ciezki finished the contest with a team-high 33 points and five assists, going 11 for 18 from the field and 5 for 9 from 3-point range, while Beaumont added 24 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
Along with their performances, freshman forward Maya Makalusky compiled 21 points and knocked down four 3-pointers. A points tally that gave Indiana its first game with three 20-plus scorers.
For the trio, it was finally the first game that Ciezki, Beaumont and Makalusky were all dangerous scoring threats at the same time. In most games this season, it’s been one or two of them scoring consistently, but the third lagging behind.
But the Hoosiers need to take this offensive performance and run with it. Indiana finished 57.9% from the field (best in a Big Ten game) and 45.5% from 3-point range (third best in a Big Ten game). Those two numbers jump off the page when looking at how dominant the Hoosiers were Sunday.
And Indiana was sharp in almost all aspects of its game. The Hoosiers finished with 14 turnovers (tied for second fewest in a Big Ten game) and corralled nine more rebounds than Northwestern, which tied their greatest rebound differential in a Big Ten contest this season.
“I thought, particularly in the first half, I thought we were really, really good,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame. “We’ve seen moments of that. We haven’t seen stretches of it.”
But Sunday was the longest stretch — a 30-0 scoring run to be exact — of basketball where the Hoosiers were in their peak form. However, the contest became close at times in the second half that were unimaginable in the first half.
Northwestern outscored Indiana 26-20 and 23-14 in the third and fourth quarters, respectively. The Wildcats even cut their deficit to 10 points with 4:51 remaining in the game.
But the Hoosiers still came out on top, in a victory that must be replicated down the stretch. Yet there have been two games this season that have felt like season-changing results: Iowa State University on Nov. 30 and Illinois on Dec. 6. And Sunday could mark a third.
In a 106-95 loss to the Cyclones, Indiana looked like it could compete against one of the best teams in the NCAA. However, since that game, both teams fell from their lofty preseason expectations, with Indiana’s goal being to make the NCAA tournament — which the Hoosiers would need a miracle to make.
But a 78-57 loss to Illinois was a sign to come in Big Ten play. The Hoosiers then rattled off three nonconference wins before a nine-game losing streak that wasn’t snapped until Sunday.
After that game, I wrote that the way in which Indiana lost couldn’t become the norm for the Hoosiers in Big Ten play. It turns out that it was the case for Indiana until Sunday. But with seven crucial games left in the season, Indiana must replicate the style, effort and intensity the Hoosiers played with against Northwestern for the rest of the season.
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.
