If you were to ask me last week, if I thought Indiana women’s basketball had a chance to make the Big Ten tournament, I would have said no.
Yesterday? Definitely not. At 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday? Probably not.
But Wednesday night’s game was a chance for the Hoosiers to prove the doubters wrong. And I, for one, was one of them.
Indiana pushed past 11 turnovers in the first half, a 6-for-20 performance from 3-point range and being outrebounded by seven. These are three statistics that should have sunk the Hoosiers back into the loss column.
But that wasn’t the case against Wisconsin, as Indiana used its physicality to defeat the Badgers 77-74 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
The victory gave the Hoosiers their second consecutive victory. A feat that would have seemed unimaginable just last Thursday, after then-No. 9 Michigan easily rolled past Indiana 95-67. Then, the Hoosiers earned an 89-75 win over Northwestern on Sunday and followed that up with a gutsy and physical win over the Badgers.
I wrote after that game against the Wildcats about whether Indiana’s winning ways could be replicated. Indiana finished Sunday’s game with its best field goal percentage in a Big Ten game (57.9%) and shot 45.5% from 3-point range.
It was a performance that wasn’t replicated, and it definitely wasn’t perfected on Wednesday. However, the outcome was the same. Indiana won a Big Ten game.
“Both teams, Wisconsin and us, were playing for something,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame Wednesday. “And so that should be enough motivation ... I hope that it does give our kids some confidence.”
That “something” Indiana was playing for was a chance to make the Big Ten conference tournament.
Before the first conference win Sunday, the Hoosiers and Penn State were both winless and at the bottom of the Big Ten standings. Now, Indiana has favorable games on the rest of its schedule that give the Hoosiers reasons for optimism.
Purdue on Feb. 8, Rutgers on Feb. 25 and Penn State on Feb. 28 to close the season are all winnable games. Yes, I know Indiana lost its first matchup against the Boilermakers 80-69, but let’s think optimistically for a moment.
If all three games were to turn into wins, Indiana would be sitting on five wins in the Big Ten. It’s a mark that is above the three wins Rutgers owned last season, which put the Scarlet Knights 16th in the standings.
But Indiana’s chances of making the conference tournament might be contingent on the results of the teams ahead of the Hoosiers in the standings: Northwestern and Purdue.
The Wildcats (2-9) have favorable games against Penn State and Purdue in their last seven games of the regular season. However, Northwestern also must play a gauntlet of talented opponents in No. 8 Michigan, No. 12 Michigan State and No. 22 Maryland, plus USC and Illinois.
Meanwhile, Purdue (3-9) has Rutgers and the Wildcats to close out the regular season. The Boilermakers still have tough opponents in No. 10 Iowa and the Terrapins, plus Oregon. However, even if Purdue or Northwestern get hot, evidence suggests both teams probably won’t find success to close the season.
Still, a basketball game was played Wednesday, and I’ll reiterate: Indiana won.
The Hoosiers didn’t produce their best performance of the season, and it was sloppy at times, but they pulled away with a victory even after trailing by two points with 3:33 remaining in the game.
After that point, it was clutch plays one after another to hand the victory to Indiana. Senior guard Shay Ciezki knocked down a 3-pointer, then followed it up with another one 45 seconds later. This time, she drew a foul as Wisconsin junior guard Kyrah Daniels ran into Ciezki.
It’s no secret that the 5-foot-7 Ciezki has been Indiana’s best player this season. She’s averaging a team-high 23.9 points per game — 10 points better per contest than second- place redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont — plus the fourth-most rebounds (3.5) and second-most assists (2.7).
Even though Indiana totaled six makes out of its 20 attempts from behind the 3-point line, Ciezki finished with a 3-for-5 performance from distance.
“We’ve been really blessed and lucky to have a lot of really great shooters that have come through our program,” Moren said postgame. “Because they work at it every single day, and they’re getting them up every single day.”
And the 3-point shooting radiated to freshman guard Nevaeh Caffey, who went 2 for 4 on her attempts. As a player who has been praised for her efforts on the defensive end, Caffey averaged 7.3 points per game. But Wednesday was a different story. She made her second-most 3-pointers in a game this season and compiled a career-high 16 points.
Every Indiana 3-pointer was helpful against a Wisconsin group that attempts the most 3s in the Big Ten per game (25.4) and has the highest 3-point attempt rate (42.3%).
The Badgers only knocked down nine of their 22 attempts (40.9%), but it was enough to stay neck-and-neck against Indiana. Previous Wisconsin performances of 17 3-pointers made against Oregon and 12 versus Rutgers loomed over the Hoosiers’ game plan.
Wednesday wasn’t a game plan or performance that Indiana needs to replicate in its last six games of the season. However, it was a result that must be repeated. A result that gives the Hoosiers a chance to compete in the Big Ten tournament.
“We’ve got to continue to learn,” Moren said postgame. “We’ve got to continue to grow ... I’m really happy that we found a way, but our sole focus right now needs to be better, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.”
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.
