Three Things: Indiana women’s basketball beats Wisconsin 83-52

Back on track.

Indiana women’s basketball moved to 2-0 in Big Ten play on Saturday with an 83-52 win over Wisconsin at home.

The Hoosiers have had something of a return to form as of late after a rough opening to the season. They’ve now one four straight with the smallest margin of victory being 15 points on the road against Penn State.

This is a team that’s both earned and maximized on time to figure itself out so far. A visit from No. 1 UCLA this coming weekend looms large as Indiana will look to prove itself over another marquee program, this one brand new to the conference.

More on that another day. Here’s three things from today’s win:

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“Sharing the Sugar”

Teri Moren is known for her various sayings as Indiana’s head coach and few ring truer than her emphasis on “sharing the sugar,” as she puts it.

The Hoosiers have always emphasized passing and ball movement to turn good shots into great shots. Find whoever’s in scoring position and get the ball in their hands one way or another.

Against Wisconsin, Indiana had 25 (!!) team assists to eight turnovers. That’s a pretty decent margin all things considered but I wouldn’t be surprised if Moren would’ve been looking for something like six turnovers.

Chloe Moore-McNeil, Indiana’s point guard of the past two seasons now, led the way with seven assists on the day with Lexus Bargesser logging four. The latter getting healthy has done wonders in openings up Indiana’s offense and taking pressure off of Moore-McNeil and Shay Ciezki as playmakers.

Nearly every Hoosier who touched the floor recorded an assist. Exactly how Moren wants to play.

Lilly Meister’s continued emergence

Replacing Mackenzie Holmes was always going to be a difficult task.

I say that carefully. Indiana is not asking Meister to be Holmes and hasn’t done that with any of its other post players in the past. But that production has to come from somewhere and Meister is filling the starting spot previously occupied by Holmes.

Meister’s always been intriguing defensively due to her length and movement on that end of the court, but she hasn’t always provided a ton as a scorer. She’s now reached double figures in five of Indiana’s past six games and could’ve gotten above that margin against Oakland with ease.

Her 20 points today were huge in the win. If she can keep getting in scoring position and converting, she’ll keep getting the ball.

Yarden Garzon

One point of concern today was that Yarden Garzon exited the game after a hard fall to the floor and didn’t re-enter. She emerged from the locker room later with ice on her left foot:

It’s less than ideal for a group rounding into form at a good time, especially with the UCLA matchup on the horizon. Moren didn’t have a concrete update to share postgame.

If Indiana wants to reach its ceiling this season it’ll need Garzon at her best. This is a situation to monitor.