With 3:29 remaining in the fourth quarter of Indiana women’s basketball’s contest against Nebraska, Cornhusker sophomore guard Britt Prince received an inbound pass from junior guard Logan Nissley. Prince then rose for a jumper from the short corner.
At the same time, Indiana senior guard Shay Ciezki tried to follow Prince on the Cornhuskers’ inbounds play. Yet, she was a step behind, leading her to contact Prince’s arm on her shot and draw a whistle.
Almost instinctively, Ciezki put her hands on her head with a blank expression on her face. Indiana was down 20 points with 1:17 remaining before halftime. Now, the Hoosiers were only down five.
The second-year Indiana player seemed to realize the gravity of the Hoosiers’ situation. If Indiana didn’t complete the comeback in 3:27, Ciezki’s collegiate career would most likely be over.
“I think that we had a lot of talks in huddles at halftime,” Ciezki said postgame Wednesday. “Just saying how much we want it and how much we worked for this, for this game.”
And in the final minutes of game time, Indiana showed how much it wanted to win. The troubles from the disappointing first half were distant memories.
“If we're going to lose, I'm going to go down swinging,” Indiana redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont said postgame Wednesday. “That kind of was my mentality in the fourth.”
A mentality that extended to every other Indiana player on the court and propelled the 13th-seeded Hoosiers to a 72-69 win over No. 12 seed Nebraska in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The rematch of a Jan. 8 showdown at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, which Indiana lost 78-73, was a measuring stick for the Hoosiers. Was a 6-2 February record a showcase of the Hoosiers’ potential heading into March, or would Indiana return to its play from a 0-8 January?
Wednesday provided the former was true.
The Hoosiers realized that tournament play meant win-or-go-home. Freshman guard Neveah Caffey, junior forward Edessa Noyan and Ciezki all played 40 minutes. Indiana head coach Teri Moren only reached for one bench player: senior guard Jerni Kiaku. Freshman forward Maya Makalusky played 25 minutes, while Beaumont finished with 38.
However, Indiana’s tired legs didn’t affect it in the fourth quarter. The Hoosiers kept chipping away at a 55-47 deficit at the start of the final 10 minutes.
A Noyan layup, then two consecutive layups from Caffey, reduced the Nebraska lead to four points with 7:03 remaining in the contest. The Cornhuskers responded throughout most of the fourth quarter, pushing their lead out to 67-60 with 2:44 left.
But the change in Indiana’s mentality down the stretch has been something that the players have acknowledged.
“Early on in the season, if we were down 20, the response probably would have been a little bit different than it was today,” Beaumont said. “As disappointing as those losses were early on ... it helped us get to the point where we are today.”
Those changes culminated in a 7-0 scoring run for the Hoosiers from 2:23 to 0:32 remaining in the game.
First, Beaumont knocked down her second 3-pointer of the game. After a steal from Ciezki, Makalusky then made a fastbreak layup. Beaumont followed close behind with another 3-pointer that gave Indiana a 68-67 lead with just over a minute left in the fourth quarter. Capped off by a layup from Ciezki, the Hoosiers regained control of the game.
Indiana’s lead affected Nebraska’s mentality, as the Cornhuskers had 3-point chances by Prince and Nissley in the final seconds of the game that hit off the rim.
The Big Ten season has been a tale of two halves for Indiana. Start slow, finish strong.
A trend that continued into the contest against Nebraska. The Hoosiers gave up 26 points in the paint, were outrebounded 22-14 and let Nebraska knock down 51.4% of its shots in the first half.
“They were frickin' on fire in that first quarter,” Moren said postgame Wednesday. “... I thought, if we could just come together, stay connected, share the ball more in the second half, it was a matter of time before we felt like Nebraska was going to cool off.”
And she was proven correct. Nebraska’s field goal percentage dropped to 31.3% in the final 20 minutes, including going 2 of 12 from behind the 3-point arc. Indiana, on the other hand, surged in the second half, making 65.4% of its shots and four 3-pointers.
Indiana has shown its improvement this season in February, but the calendar recently turned to March. And in the maddest month of all, it might be time to think of the Hoosiers as an NCAA Tournament team.
“I don't think a team's hungrier than a team trying to get in the tournament,” Ciezki said postgame Wednesday. “And that's what we're playing for right now. We're just trying to stack wins as much as we can.”
The Hoosiers can stack another win on Thursday. This time, it will be against much harder competition in Associated Press’ No. 11 and the fifth-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes. But with the way Indiana has been playing recently, the Hoosiers can avenge their 81-67 loss on Jan. 22.
“So we've just got to make sure that with Ohio State that we're playing together all 40 minutes,” Ciezki said postgame Wednesday.
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.
