The Indiana Hoosiers ran out of steam in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament in a 83-59 loss to the 5-seed Ohio State Buckeyes. Indiana finishes the season with an 18-14 record and the Hoosiers will await a bid to the NIT or BIT.
After playing even in a first quarter that ended tied 12-12, the Hoosiers dug themselves another first half hole. The Buckeyes outscored IU 24-12 in the second quarter to take a 36-24 lead into the break. IU went cold the last three minutes of the first quarter and the first minute of the second quarter. The Buckeyes went on a 20-4 from the 3:01 mark of the first quarter to the 3:39 mark of the second.
It was a hole IU could not climb out of as they dealt with foul trouble, issues breaking Ohio State’s press and cold shooting from the floor.
During that fateful second quarter Hoosier guard Lenee Beaumont picked up three of her four first half fouls. Teri Moren left Beaumont in after she picked up her third foul with 4:36 left in the first half and the Hoosiers trailing 24-16 knowing that the game was hanging in the balance. Beaumont picked up her fourth foul less than two minutes later and was relegated to the bench.
“We trust Beau to stay in there, and it didn’t quite work out for us.” Moren explained postgame “We just felt like we had to have our best players on the floor in order for it not to get too out of touch for us. Having Beau in there, she’s another scoring threat for us, although, again, she struggled tonight on both sides of the ball. She is somebody that we really count on. So we just felt like we could trust her, and we needed her in the game.”
Foul trouble was not the only reason IU struggled the final three quarters of the game.
The Hoosiers’ offense could not knock down shots, even when they got open. Shay Ciezki finished with 12 points and Maya Makalusky had 21 to lead the Hoosiers. As a team IU shot just 19-57 (33.3%) from the field and 5-21 (23.8%)from three point range.
The Hoosiers also struggled with an aggressive Buckeye defense, turning the ball over 15 times which Ohio State turned into 21 points.
“Their press in itself really, really is disruptive. It slows you down. It takes you out of any kind of offensive flow, offensive rhythm. Unless you can get a hit ahead to a layup, they do such a great job of recovering and getting back.” Moren said. “Then they force you to have to play in the half-court as well. They switch everything. Like I said, they’re disruptive. They got to balls way faster than we did, even those loose balls. They’re terrific. When you think about Ohio State, you think about, first and foremost, their pressure. It’s outstanding.
The Hoosiers climbed out of the hole on Wednesday, but on Thursday it was too deep. According to a quote Seth Tow of The Daily Hoosier obtained from Beaumont in the locker room post game IU will not accept a postseason bid.
Teri Moren did not say no, but gave her reasons postgame on if she would accept a WNIT bid.
“We haven’t even thought about that. We really, honest to goodness, have just put our head down, and we’ve just focused on especially finishing out the season the way we wanted to finish it out because we wanted to get into the tournament, this tournament, the Big Ten Tournament. Then our focus has just been on the Big
Ten Tournament.
“Those are discussions that we’ll have when we get back to Bloomington here in the next week or so, but it will certainly — I will weigh in with Shay for sure and Jerni to see whattheir interest level is going to be in that.
We’re a little bit beat up. So I don’t know what they’ll decide. For some of those kids, we got some end-of-the-season things that we’ve got to get them healthy.”