BLOOMINGTON — After the first three games of the season, IU women’s basketball looked like it had lost its way.
Indiana lost a lot from last year with Mackenzie Holmes graduating, and that sort of departure can take time to adjust to. And it’s been bumpy for IU in this first stretch without the All-American anchoring the team. The Hoosiers got away with a lot of sloppy play in the season-opener against Brown, and they couldn’t overcome similar mistakes in consecutive losses to Harvard and Butler.
But on Sunday, things changed. IU’s 79-66 upset over No. 24 Stanford is a win that can help balance out its resume. But the way IU bounced back from the losses and the way the team played, beyond the result, was particularly encouraging.
“When you go through some rough patches, I think you find out quickly what you’re made of. And I think we found out today that we’re capable of a whole lot,” IU head coach Teri Moren said after the game. “And my hope for this group is that they can see themselves in this game today and know that they can come out and perform like this every night.”
Moore-McNeil got assertive
Last season, during a break in the schedule ahead of conference play starting, Moren told Chloe Moore-McNeil to step it up.
She wanted the guard to take on a bigger scoring role and become more aggressive offensively, even if that meant sacrificing her typically stellar assist-to-turnover ratio. Moore-McNeil responded the way IU hoped, and became a crucial offensive weapon last year.
The graduate student didn’t carry that into this season during Indiana’s slow start. But she got much more assertive on Sunday and paced the Hoosiers offensively. Moore-McNeil played faster, as IU tried to push the pace against Stanford, and she was able to create her own shots through aggressive drives into the lane. The Tennessee native shot 7 for 11 from the field, 2 for 5 from 3-point range, and 5 for 6 at the foul line for 21 points, and she added two rebounds and four steals.
“She’s the first one to tell you that she has not played very well. She’s played in too many big games, and she knows that she has not played her best,” Moren said. “But she’s — as I always say — she’s as tough as a $6 steak. And it’s just a matter of time before — she saw herself and she responded.”
This was the Moore-McNeil Indiana needs this year. With Holmes gone, the graduate student has to be one of the steady forces of IU’s offense. She won’t be the star of every game, and doesn’t need to be the team’s leading scorer every night. But her passive play was one of the biggest root causes of the Hoosiers’ slow start, and if IU is going to live up to its potential this season, she needs to be one of the biggest drivers of its success.
IU got its edge back
Moore-McNeil’s performance was a catalyst for the way the entire team played.
Throughout the first three games, Indiana lacked the emotion it’s typically played with. The joy wasn’t there — nor was the smooth, pretty basketball that brings it out. And the Hoosiers didn’t have their usual bite on the other end of the spectrum, either. Instead, things felt desperate; a healthy level of desperation can drive a team to get the job done with its back against the wall, but IU’s desperation level was unhealthy. Mistakes compounded on each other, bad runs extended longer than necessary, and games got away.
But that all changed on Sunday.
“They’ve been a little ticked off,” Moren said. “It’s never a bad thing to play a little mad. I think that they came out and played with a little bit of anger, which was good.”
Indiana’s shots started falling early, which always helps confidence. But it was more than just the 3-point clip. After looking like a weaker team early this season, the Hoosiers played tough, physical basketball on both ends of the court. They played the type of game where Jules LaMendola made a big imprint despite scoring only two points, because the sophomore battled so hard defensively.
IU’s start to the season was marred by disjointed showings, with both new pieces and returnees playing out of sync. But that, too, changed against Stanford. Shay Ciezki’s quickness opened things up in transition, and she started to regain her shooting stroke. Yarden Garzon played much more controlled, effective basketball. If Lilly Meister picked up a fourth foul right after halftime during one of the Hoosiers’ first three games, it might have broken their spirit. But on Sunday, IU didn’t miss a beat.
Indiana still has a lot of room to continue growing and improving, and the Stanford game wasn’t perfect. But this was a performance — and a result — the Hoosiers desperately needed.
“Losing sucks. We just wanted to win. Everybody on the team wanted to do everything in their ability to win this game, come with good energy,” Garzon said. “We really needed that win, and I feel like everybody knew that. And we did it.”
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