By Jhett Garrett
BLOOMINGTON, IN: Indiana forced 18 turnovers on Monday, while scoring 23 fast-break points in the win.
A full moon glistened in the night sky over Assembly Hall, as if to shine a spotlight on the Indiana women’s basketball team’s season opener against Lipscomb University. Through fast play and aggressive defense, the Hoosiers opened up to a 19-6 lead in the first quarter, and never looked back as they won 80-46.
Senior guard Shay Ciezki led the Hoosiers in scoring with 22 points, shooting 8-17 from the field. Despite starting 0-3 from three-point range, Ciezki knocked down her first three of the game with 8:01 left in the third, which ignited a 14-point second half.
“I think it goes to show that with my teammates, their support has really helped me,” Ciezki said after the game.
Despite a poor shooting night from long distance, the Hoosiers translated aggressive defense into 23 fastbreak points. Although Indiana was able to force the Bisons into 18 turnovers, the Hoosiers fouled 21 times, a number that head coach Teri Moren wants to bring down.
“I still think that we are athletic enough to be able to keep people in front of us,” Moren said after the game. “We feel like we can be aggressive by keeping people in front of us by relying on each other in those gaps so that we don’t have to.”
Redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont and sophomore guard Phoenix Stotijn led the Hoosiers with four fouls each.
Being physical is a heavy emphasis for Moren, and no one displayed physicality better than sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen. The University of California, Los Angeles transfer tallied 19 points on a 90% shooting clip, while also grabbing six rebounds. Socka-Nguemen picked up a foul early in the first quarter but played clean basketball for the rest of the contest.
“Z has to stay on the floor,” Moren said. “Fouling 94 feet, or whatever it is, away from the bucket. Those are just not really good fouls for us.”
The 56 points in the paint that the Hoosiers totaled, however, was a number that they love moving forward. Indiana upgrading its athleticism in the offseason has proven early on to be one of its biggest strengths.
“We do feel like we are more athletic than we were a year ago, so part of our game planning is to try to push pace,” Moren said. “We told them to dribble less tonight and try to really hit that thing ahead.”
Pushing “that thing” ahead allowed Indiana to recover from a 3-15 shooting night. Even with the low percentage from distance, the Hoosiers still averaged 1.13 points per possession and shot 50% from the field overall. Indiana has now scored 80 or more points in six straight season openers.
“We play every game for our standard,” Ciezki said. “Just to be 1-0 right now it’s start, but we’re back at it tomorrow.”
Indiana doesn’t have to wait long for its next matchup, as the Hoosiers will take on the University of Illinois-Chicago on Friday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and while be broadcast on Big Ten Network Plus.
