INDIANAPOLIS — With every whistle blown against her team in the first half Thursday, IU head women’s basketball coach Teri Moren grew increasingly animated.
She could only hold in her frustration for so long as her Hoosiers accrued foul after foul in the Big Ten Tournament second round against Oregon. Moren clearly felt that the referees weren’t calling the game evenly at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and that the Ducks were allowed to play with more physicality than IU.
Juniors Lilly Meister and Yarden Garzon each had three fouls around midway through the second quarter, and senior Karoline Striplin picked up her third foul with 2:45 remaining until halftime. This put IU in an unfamiliar dilemma with both veteran frontcourt players in real foul trouble.
As this scenario started getting worse for the Hoosiers, associate head coach Rhet Wierzba walked down IU’s bench to the other forwards. He found freshman Faith Wiseman, explained the situation, and told her to be ready.
“At that point, I just took a deep breath and knew that my number was about to be called,” Wiseman said. “And so, yeah, just tried to do the best I could.”
This quickly became a memorable day for the Martinsville, Ind. native. She played a career-high 10 minutes, and saw her first-ever first-half action in college.
Wiseman’s efforts were instrumental for IU in overcoming the foul trouble, which helped the Hoosiers go on to a 78-62 win. She didn’t score a point and missed her lone field-goal attempt, but she grabbed two rebounds, dished one assist, and recorded the first steal of her IU career. She also drew two charges.
Moren often echoes clichés about players needing to be ready whenever their opportunities arise. On Thursday, the freshman provided a concrete example of what that looks like.
“I think Faith has stayed ready all year,” graduate student Sydney Parrish said. “I think she’s always the first player in the gym every single day, even though she doesn’t play most games. She is still working out every single day, working on her craft, getting better, and she’s taken the responsibility of, hey, maybe I won’t get in a lot of these games, but I’m still going to be prepared, be ready, and step up when it’s needed. You never know when your number is going to be called.”
Wiseman showed some nerves during her first few minutes on the court. Moren had to direct her multiple times on her positioning, and she just needed a bit to settle in.
The freshman played the final 2:45 of the first half, and then returned with 4:40 remaining in the third quarter after Striplin and Meister reached four fouls. She looked more comfortable then, and she came up with a big moment in the fourth quarter. With IU ahead by seven and trying to hold off an Oregon comeback, Wiseman made a key offensive rebound and kicked it back out to Yarden Garzon, who drilled a 3-pointer.
“That was definitely exciting, especially when (Garzon) hit that three,” Wiseman said. “I was really, really pumped about that.”
The Indian Creek High alum had played only 28 minutes across the entire season before this game. She’d entered only four of Indiana’s nine games since the start of February, and played just nine total minutes in those contests.
But none of that mattered on Thursday. Wiseman stepped up when her team needed her. And her teammates and coaches couldn’t help but be proud of that.
“Faith is a kid that comes in, she does extra work, she’s in the gym. In spite of maybe not getting a lot of minutes in Big Ten play, she’s a kid that’s building for her future here at Indiana,” Moren said. “That’s what I’ve really admired about her. Sometimes when kids don’t get the time, it’s easy for them to choose not to come in that gym every day and try to keep getting better, and Faith has not been that kid. We’ve had a lot of them that have come through our program. But really proud of just how she just helped us hang on there.”
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