Indiana women’s basketball beat Eastern Michigan 74-67 on Sunday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
Below are three quick reasons why the Hoosiers won, along with highlights, final stats, and a few quotes.
IU (10-2) is back in action on Sunday at home against Western Carolina.
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1. Overcoming foul trouble in the frontcourt: It’s been abundantly clear how big the loss of Zania Socka-Nguemen is for the foreseeable future. With her still out with an injury and Faith Wiseman unable to play, IU’s remaining pieces needed to stay out of foul trouble to keep some level of size in the paint. But, with EMU running a lot of offense through standout forward Sisi Eleko, both Edessa Noyan and Maya Maklusky struggled to keep things clean down low. Both picked up four fouls by the fourth quarter and had to play things conservatively in the final minutes. The Hoosiers also struggled to rebound all game, as EMU came away with the overall 39-31 advantage.
2. Shay Ciezki leading the charge, again: Ciezki continues to terrorize opposing defenses in the early nonconference slate. Although she got off to a slower start, Ciezki finished with 25 points on a 9-of-17 shooting night. Her best stretch came towards the end of the first half, where she scored seven straight Indiana points to put them ahead by four. Ciezki also played all 40 minutes of the game. As of now, she leads the Big Ten in points per game with 24.9. Lenee Beaumont and Edessa Noyan both finished in double figures to help pace the Hoosiers.
3. Good defensive effort throughout: Indiana held the Eagles to 39 percent from the field and limited them to 7-of-26 from beyond the arc. The Hoosiers started the game well, forcing EMU to six empty possessions, and finished the game outscoring them 22-15 in the fourth quarter. With the front court in foul trouble, Jade Ondineme in particular played key defensive minutes down the stretch. She finished with two steals and two rebounds in seven minutes, which was her season high.
Final stats
Highlights
Quotable
Teri Moren on the front court: “I want to say this in the most respectable way to those kids that are getting these minutes, but I think her teammates would tell you, we’re really looking forward to seeing Z back. I mean, today Jade did exactly what we needed her to do. She didn’t try to do anything out of the ordinary. She didn’t try to do anything that she wasn’t capable of. She did exactly, especially defensivley, what we needed her to do.”
Shay Ciezki on attacking down the stretch: “There’s definitely a fine line with , trying to figure out when we should attack as as players. You don’t want to attack and force, but you want to make sure that you’re attacking and finding the right play out of it. So, in my head, I just wanted to be aggressive and whatever came out of that came out of that. So, whether that’s a open three, whether that’s a mid-range pullup, or whether that’s a kick out three to Len in the corner. So that was my mindset going in, just trying to be aggressive and attack to see if I can draw two or three players in and create an advantage for the team.”
Teri Moren on rebounding: “I think rebounding, to me, is desire and its hustle, and its heart. It’s all of those and, you know. And some of it is positionally, you know, we watched a lot of film because we didn’t go as hard on Friday of us ball watching.That’s when the shot goes up. Instead of finding our man, and really making contact, and turning and boxing and pursuing. It’s like, hope is not a strategy. You can’t hope the ball comes to you, you gotta do your work and make sure you’re making that contact.”
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