After a tough time out west, Indiana Women’s Basketball came back to Bloomington to host the Oregon Ducks. It was a 4th Quarter thriller between the Hoosiers and the Ducks, with momentum shifting at the end of the game. Indiana secured a 72-65 win to keep them in the Big Ten Tournament discussion.
Indiana got scoring going early, seeing numbers from six different Hoosiers. Once again, the star for the Hoosiers: Shay Ciezki. In the top 5 of points per game in college basketball, Ciezki has been the leader all season. She had 20 points on the night, 11 of which were scored in the 4th quarter when the Hoosiers needed her most. Not only did this effort propel Indiana to victory, but it was also certainly a senior day to remember for Ciezki. She became IUs' 34th member of the 1,000-point club.
"To be able to get this win on senior night is awesome… a lot of emotions definitely after. I think it kind of set in that this is going to be my last go around here…” Ciezki reflected after the game.
Edessa Noyan also had herself a night with 18 points, going 7-for-11 from the field. She also brought down 8 rebounds. She has shown confidence lately that has carried the Hoosiers to victory. Other players to hit double digits include Lenée Beaumont with 15 points and Maya Makalusky with 10.
The Hoosiers brought the energy on offense early, and, as a collective, the same cannot be said of the Ducks. They were evidently relying on Katie Fiso and Ehis Etute, the only 2 players to put numbers up for Oregon in the 1st Quarter. Astera Tuhina contributed 5 points in Quarter 2 to mark only the third Duck to put up any numbers. This trend persisted throughout the game. Etute was the point leader on the night with 27, going 11-for-24 from the field and 5-for-8 from the stripe. She carried Oregon; however, it wasn't enough for the Ducks to come out on top.
Indiana still continues to struggle with giving the ball over. They finished with 17 turnovers, compared to Oregon's 9. With this, they let the ducks score 19 points. With the Big Ten Tournament nearly in their grasp, the Hoosiers need to keep the ball safe to compete.
Speaking of the Big Ten Tournament, what are Indiana’s odds for getting in? With the expansion of the Big Ten Conference, only the top 15 teams make the tournament in Indianapolis. Their win over the Ducks was crucial to keeping them in the running, placing them 15th in the conference before their Wednesday matchup at Rutgers and Saturday home game against Penn State. Interestingly, the last two opponents of the season are both outside the top 15.
Moren and the team are aware of their place in the standings and aren’t just satisfied with their win over Oregon,
“We feel like we have to not just win today, you know, we got to get on the road and win at Rutgers, and then we got to come home, and we got to finish the rest of it against Penn State.”
Moren is also proud of how her team has overcome adversity this season and their work ethic.
“Sometimes when adversity hits, it's hard to stay together and stay connected…we had a really, really tough stretch there, right, where we could've gone one or two ways. I thought that, for this group, they kept their heads down and kept doing what we were asking them to do. They've stayed together and continue to show up with enthusiasm.”
Up next: Indiana (15-3, 4-12) at Rutgers (9-18, 1-15) Feb. 25, 7:00 p.m.
