The Hoosiers take down the Cornhuskers at home.
Indiana women’s basketball has gotten back to its winning ways with back-to-back victories over Washington and Nebraska.
The Hoosiers had entered something of a slump with losses to Illinois and USC at home followed up with one at Oregon in the first game of the team’s trip to the Pacific Northwest. Today’s performance against the Cornhuskers was especially encouraging as Indiana looks to keep its head above water in the Big Ten.
Here’s three observations:
Chloe Moore-McNeil
Indiana’s point guard had a masterful all-around performance today with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists with just 2 turnovers on the offensive end of the floor and 4 steals on the defensive end.
This kind of performance, while special no doubt, isn’t wholly unexpected from Moore-McNeil, who put together a triple double last season.
The Huskers just didn’t have an answer for her, plain and simple. She faced some ball pressure, but it just wasn’t good enough to get to her. She was just, simply, a better player than anyone trying to guard her.
Anytime your primary ballhandler goes 4-5 from 3-point range you’re probably gonna feel pretty good.
Yarden Garzon
One of the largest problems in the aforementioned slump was that Yarden Garzon had trouble putting points on the board. It wasn’t for lack of trying, her shot just wasn’t falling.
An incredible 35-point performance against Washington would’ve been tough to beat and Garzon didn’t but she could be entering a bit of a hot streak with a team-leading 19 points against Nebraska.
She followed up a searing 8-10 shooting night from long range against the Huskies with a 5-9 clip against the Huskers, more than good enough.
When Garzon looks like this and is leading the way as a scorer, Indiana can be a tough out for just about every team in the country.
The switch to Karoline Striplin
This wasn’t the first game that Striplin started at the five spot, that move to replace Meister was made a while ago but it’s become more readily apparent why that happened.
Obviously neither of the two was going to be Mackenzie Holmes, they weren’t going to be asked to or expected to. What this iteration of Indiana probably needs at the center spot is someone who can play consistent defense in the paint and score around 10 or so points a night.
Striplin just offers that better than Meister does. Don’t get me wrong, the latter has been reliable off the bench and has found spots to impact the game but wasn’t consistent enough of a scorer.
Ever since Indiana made that change ahead of the game against USC, Striplin has put at least 10 points on the board in each game. She’s just been what that role requires right now.
3-point defense
Nebraska takes more attempts from 3-point range than any other team in the Big Ten with 23.4 per game. The Huskers make those shots at a rate of 35.2%, which is the second best mark in the conference.
Indiana held them to shooting just 11 from deep, of which the Huskers made just three. Nebraska isn’t an unfamiliar style to Indiana, a good scoring five in Alexis Markowski next so a solid big in Petra Bozan with the two surrounded by shooters.
The Hoosiers were able to run the Huskers off of the 3-point line while simultaneously limiting Markowski to just 8 points on five attempts from the field. All-around, a fantastic defensive performance.