IU women’s basketball takes a step back against North Carolina – The Daily Hoosier

On By Littum

After generating some positive momentum after a rough start, Indiana women’s basketball took a big step back.

In the Battle 4 Atlantis opener, Indiana defeated Columbia, which is rated No. 55 inches Bart Torvik’s T-Rank. Then the Hoosiers beat Baylor no. 18 on Sunday, their second ranked win in eight days. But in the championship game on Monday, they ran out of gas. IU completely collapsed in the second half against no. 16 in North Carolina as the Tar Heels ran away with a 69-39 victory.

IU (4-3) shot 29 percent from the field and 21 percent in the second half. The Hoosiers went 0 for 13 from 3-point range after halftime, putting them at 4 for 26 on the day. They also totaled just seven assists with 16 turnovers. North Carolina (6-1) held Indiana to just seven points in the third quarter and six in the fourth, and the Tar Heels posted an 11-for-23 clip from 3-point range.

Chloe Moore-McNeil took the blame for the team’s poor performance, although it wasn’t all her fault. She finished with eight points — second on IU to only Yarden Garzon (10 points) — along with three rebounds, three assists, one block, one steal and one turnover.

“Baylor was a great team, Columbia was a great team. And then we get the hype and we’re ready for North Carolina and then it’s just … it wasn’t us today. It wasn’t us at all,” Moore said- McNeil after the game. “And I take full responsibility, as one of our managers, because I can’t allow that to happen and the coaches, they can get on us all they want and hype us and keep us positive, but at the end of the day, it’s up to us as players to get it together.”

Three games in three days is challenging for any program, and Indiana won’t experience that for the rest of the season. But its overall performance in this game, after losing Sydney Parrish to injury on Sunday, has rekindled some of the concerns it showed through the first two weeks of the season.

The Hoosiers struggled to match North Carolina’s physicality, something that became a problem during the Brown, Harvard and Butler games. Lilly Meister (1 for 7 shooting, two points, three rebounds) was particularly ineffective, and Shay Ciezki (2 for 8, 1 for 5 3-pointers, five points) cooled off after his 34-point explosion against Baylor.

“Today we just didn’t have the urgency level for 40 minutes that we needed and that was disappointing,” IU head coach Moren said. “But a lesson learned. I think our kids all agree that this wasn’t our best 40 minutes, but we’ll have to respond when we get back to Bloomington and get ready for the next opponent .”

Sophomore Jules LaMendola stepped into the starting lineup in Parrish’s place, and she was one of IU’s better players overall. The wing grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds to go with six points on 2-of-8 shooting, and she was one of two Indiana rotation players who didn’t commit a turnover.

The Hoosiers made positive progress in the Bahamas with their first two games. Ciezki’s huge performance against Baylor should be a confidence booster after she endured a rough start to the season. Lexus Bargesser saw her first game action, playing 10 minutes against Columbia, 26 against Baylor and 14 minutes against UNC. And both wins — along with the win over Stanford prior to this event — will help balance out the Harvard and Brown losses on IU’s resume.

But Parrish’s injury casts renewed doubt on Indiana’s long-term prospects, especially if the graduate student will miss extended time.

The mother is unsure how long Parrish will be out — the program won’t know until it returns to Bloomington. And for a team that had trouble jelling at the beginning of the season, this was another hurdle to adjust to. And even though it’s just one game under abnormal circumstances, the Hoosiers fought to do so on Monday.

And regardless of Parrish’s status, it’s clear the Hoosiers still have weaknesses to address.

“It will be another adjustment period, because we don’t know how much longer Syd will be out. But we’re going to have to get back to Bloomington and start figuring out how to move our pieces around and how to put a five on the floor that hopefully can jiggle faster than we’ve been able to, ” said the Mother. “I thought we made some improvements, we grew a little bit here in the Bahamas, it’s just a shame Syd went down in the Baylor game yesterday.”

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