A disaster in Assembly Hall.
Disaster.
For the first time since 2022, Indiana women’s basketball has lost a regular season basketball game in Assembly Hall. This wasn’t just any game either, it was against a mid-major, Harvard, the kind that power conference teams like Indiana schedule for a not-too-challenging home win.
This is an expectations-reset kind of loss. It’s unprecedented for what the program has been in the last few years under Teri Moren.
The box score tells the story pretty simply when you look at the turnovers column and there’s a big “27” under Indiana. It’s a nightmare inducing number for any coach, but Moren has brought up turnover issues after 20-something point wins in the past.
It all started from the beginning. Harvard jumped on Indiana after the opening tip to force 11 (!!) first quarter turnovers. The Crimson took 18 shots to the Hoosiers’ 7 to open up with a dominating 21-7 lead in the first ten minutes.
Indiana simply didn’t look comfortable offensively. Sixth-year point guard Chloe Moore-McNeil finished with 10 points on 2-9 shooting with three assists and just as many turnovers.
The Hoosiers have been without No. 2 point guard Lexus Bargesser through two games and it’s shown. Those duties have fallen to transfer Shay Ciezki, who scored just four points with one assist and a single turnover on the night.
When good shots managed to come on the perimeter, the Hoosiers only knocked down 3 of their 18 attempts from long range.
Indiana mustered enough points to draw within two heading into the half, but some backbreaking 3s from Harvard kept it at the same margin heading into the fourth.
Whistles were blown left and right all game but the stakes got higher in the fourth quarter when Ciezki, along with two members of the Crimson, fouled out. Harvard ended up committing a whopping 32 fouls.
Then former Hoosier Mona Zaric stuffing Moore-McNeil at the rim and grabbing the rebound all but took the game to overtime on its own. From there, more costly mistakes kept the Hoosiers from taking the advantage.
Indiana spent just over five minutes leading. They just had no business winning in the end, and didn’t.
There’s going to be more that comes from this, a breakdown of sorts on why this happened, what it means and where Indiana can go from here. There’s something to salvage for sure, but this one’s gonna stay with the Hoosiers even if they get back on track.