Indiana women’s basketball beat Louisiana-Monroe 98-54 Thursday 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 (9-2) is back in action on Sunday at home against Eastern Michigan.
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Three quick reasons why Indiana beat ULM
1. Overcoming thin depth: Indiana center Zania Socka-Nguemen missed her fourth straight game with a lower body injury. But she wasn’t alone this time: guard Jerni Kiaku and forward Faith Wiseman were also unavailable. Neither Wiseman nor Kiaku have seen extensive action this season, but Wiseman’s absence, in particular, left Teri Moren without many options in the frontcourt. The Hoosiers utilized a seven-player rotation for most of the game; Edessa Noyan played 30 minutes for the second consecutive contest, and Maya Makalusky stepped in at the 5 when the Virginia transfer went to the bench. IU struggled with rebounding, as the Warhawks finished with a 37-33 advantage — they grabbed a whopping 19 offensive rebounds, and Indiana got only one. But the Hoosiers overcame that and got the job done.
2. A usual suspect, and a pleasant surprise: Shay Ciezki continued her dominant start to the 2025-26 season. The senior entered this game seventh in the nation with 24.3 points per game, the top mark in the Big Ten. Ciezki kept it rolling with 31 points on 12-for-17 shooting, with a 3-for-4 3-point clip. Those sorts of performances are becoming regular for the Penn State transfer. But Makalusky may be the bigger story from this game. Moren inserted the freshman into the starting lineup, replacing Valentyna Kadlecova, and she rewarded that faith. Makalusky turned in the best game of her young career, shooting 8 for 12 from the field and 6 for 10 from 3-point range for 22 points, with four rebounds, three assists, a block, and two steals. If the Fishers, Ind. native can play like that consistently, she could change Indiana’s long-term outlook this year.
3. Good defense: ULM fired off 72 field goal attempts on Thursday, the most by an IU opponent since Oklahoma in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. But the Warhawks made only 20 of those tries, giving them the lowest field goal percentage by an IU opponent so far this season. Despite the high amount of Warhawk offensive rebounds, Indiana did a good job forcing them into tough looks throughout the game. The Hoosiers also forced 17 turnovers; Kadlecova, Makalusky, and Nevaeh Caffey each had two steals.
Final stats
Highlights
Quotable
This story will be updated.
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