INDIANAPOLIS — IU women’s basketball faced a daunting task on Friday in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
Indiana’s reward for beating Oregon on Thursday was a rematch with regular-season conference champions USC, currently ranked No. 2 in the country. The Hoosiers kept things close against the Trojans in January at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, but this game had different stakes and a different atmosphere.
Still, IU hung right in with USC. The Hoosiers won the second and third quarters, and never trailed by double digits. But the Trojans just had more firepower than Teri Moren’s team could match, and they pulled out an 84-79 victory.
After the game, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb praised Indiana’s resiliency and effort.
“They’re really good, they’re really well-coached, and they’re old, right? (Yarden) Garzon is old. Chloe Moore-McNeil is old. (Sydney) Parrish is old — veteran. I don’t mean old, but veteran. Kids like that are not going to go out without a really tough fight,” Gottlieb said. “They’re excellent players, and I thought we had to adjust.”
Ultimately, IU (19-12) just couldn’t do enough to limit Big Ten Player of the Year JuJu Watkins. Moren threw a lot of different looks at the Trojans, with Watkins obviously a focal point. But very little worked. The star sophomore tore up the Hoosiers all game, shooting 10 for 19 from the field for 31 points with 10 rebounds. Forward Kiki Iriafen also proved a difficult matchup for the Hoosiers, scoring 21 points on 8-of-19 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds.
“They’re challenging,” Moren said after the game. “I want to say this in the right way, but we’ve got a lot of teams that have been really challenging all year long. Both JuJu and Kiki are terrific, and we’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for USC and Lindsay, their staff, and their players.”
IU also struggled with USC’s length. The Trojans (27-2) affected a lot of Indiana’s shots, and forced some bad looks with strong defense. The Hoosiers have struggled with missed layups at times this season, and that issue resurfaced on Friday — Indiana shot just 9 for 27 on layups as a team.
Indiana graduate student Sydney Parrish said USC’s size and shot-blocking ability impacted some of those inside looks, but wants to avoid regret over those missed opportunities.
“We got to the free-throw line a crap ton. And that’s what we wanted to try and do, and we got them into foul trouble as well. Just early in the game, we were missing a couple bunny layups, and those are some that can go both ways, and that was the matter of the game,” Parrish said. “I don’t think you can look back on those, because that’s going to keep you up at night, looking back and making layups.”
Parrish fouled out with 5:39 remaining, which she said is the earliest she’s ever fouled out of a game. She finished with eight points and a team-high three steals, which also matched her season-high.
Junor Yarden Garzon turned in another strong performance in Indianapolis, shooting 5 for 10 from 3-point range and 6 for 15 from the field for a team-high 23 points. 14 of those points came in the second half. The Israeli also grabbed eight rebounds.
Junior Shay Ciezki caught fire in the third quarter, with eight points in the period. The Penn State transfer finished with 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting. She also added three blocks, recording multiple blocks in back-to-back games for the first time in her college career. Five of her 14 total career blocks between IU and Penn State have come in this Big Ten Tournament.
Graduate student Chloe Moore-McNeil dished a team-high six assists, though with three turnovers. The guard scored 17 points on 3-for-13 shooting, with a 10-for-10 mark at the foul line. She also chipped in eight rebounds, seven assists, and two steals. Senior Karoline Striplin added 10 points on 4-for-10 shooting.
Junior Lilly Meister suffered a left ankle injury during the third quarter, as Iriafen inadvertently stepped on it while running back after a foul shot. Meister needed help getting off the court and went to the locker room in tears. She returned to the IU bench a few minutes later, and checked back into the game before the end of the quarter. The forward finished with four points, three rebounds, and one assist off the bench.
USC moves on to the semifinals on Saturday to face No. 5 seed Michigan.
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