The Indiana Hoosiers (2-0) knocked off the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames 72-56 behind a strong second half and 35 points from guard Shay Ciezki.
The Hoosiers trailed 34-27 at half time as the Flames shot nearly 60-percent from the field. Julia Coleman had 12 or her 20 points in the first half and Jessica Carrothers scored 14 of her 17 in the first half as well. The duo gave IU fits.
“They had a majority of their points and so, and they had one assist between them. And so what the adjustments were is that all these other guys, those three players, around those two, we needed to do a much better job of being in our gaps. You know, crowding when they had the ball, just, just helping.” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said.
The Hoosiers adjusted and rode Ciezki’s hot hand for the win.
“I think she had one of those special nights, you know, where she felt not only that her teammates needed her, but she was feeling pretty good about her opportunities to score the ball for us.” Moren said.
Ciezki scored 25 of her 35 points in the second half and rattled off 18-straight points during that run. She shot a blistering 7-10 from the three-point line and 12-21 from the field.
“I think that my teammates did a great job finding me.” Ciezki said. “We were still working at download a Z(ania). There’s a mismatch every time down there. So, you know, with z being open, we have shooters on the outside. So they had to guard everybody tonight, and I was able to knock down some shots, which is pretty good.”
While the Hoosiers gutted out the win, Moren said there is a lot to improve on.
“(We) got off to a really rough first half, and I was as interested, probably as you guys, to see how we would respond, to be quite honest with you.” Moren said. “When you have so many new faces, so many new pieces that have not met adversity. You’re always curious to how they’re going to respond. And I thought in the second half, we responded in a much better way.”
Other Notes
- IU was just 14-25 on layups
- Ciezki had an IU career-high 35 points connecting on seven 3-pointers. It bested her previous Indiana career-high of 34 points against Baylor last season.
- Socka-Nguemen recorded IU’s first double-double of the season, scoring 19 points with 13 rebounds.
- Indiana goes 5-1 in the series with UIC, playing them for the first time since 2012.
- Freshman forward Maya Makalusky scored her first career points early on in the second quarter.
- The Hoosiers finished the night off with 14 assists with sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont and freshman guard Nevaeh Caffey tying with a team-high five assists each.
- Beaumont also added nine rebounds.
- In the second half, IU erased a seven-point deficit and held the Flames to just 22 combined points.