Indiana Women’s basketball grabbed a win in its season opener against Florida Gulf Coast, with a 79-50 win. It wasn’t the prettiest game, and the Hoosiers certainly have a lot of room to improve, but it showcased several key reasons why this year’s team can get back to success under head coach Teri Moren.
The Hoosiers didn’t get off to a hot start, shooting only 38.9 percent from the field in the first quarter. They also shot 3-for-11 from behind the arc. They made up for it with a strong defensive stand, holding Florida Gulf Coast to five points in the quarter.
The Eagles shot 2-for-11 from the field in the quarter, turning it over five times in the process.
By the end of the half, the Hoosiers’ shooting went up to 40 percent, with 33.3 percent from the three-point line. Transfer guard Kenzie Hare led scoring with eight points in the half, but ultimately IU’s 33 points were evenly distributed. Sharp-shooting forward Maya Makalusky led the team in shots, but struggled a bit from the field going 2-for-8 from the field with seven three-point attempts and six points. IU’s greatest difficulty in the half was its free-throw shooting, as they were only 2-for-8 from the charity stripe at halftime.
Despite this poor shooting, IU led 33-18 at the half.
The Hoosier offense was efficient and effective in the third quarter. They outscored FGCU 25-14 in the quarter and increased their game lead to 26 points.
Indiana shot 6-for-11 from the field and 11-for-14 from free throws. They didn’t put up as many shot opportunities, as they only had one offensive rebound, but they did a lot better at getting in the paint and finishing the possession with free throws.
IU was living at the three-point line in the first half, but in this quarter, they played a more interior offense, running it through the bigs more often. They did make both of their three-point opportunities, though, one coming from Lenée Beaumont and the other from Malia Samuels.
Indiana had a rough 11 turnovers in the first half, but only had six in the second half, cleaning up some of the first-half sloppiness. To add to that, the Indiana defense had three steals and scored 19 total points off FGCU turnovers. Indiana forced 19 total turnovers in the game.
Indiana finished off the game with a comfortable 79-50 victory. The leading scorer was Zania Socka-Nguemen, who had 13 points.
Takeaways
Indiana’s offense struggled in most of the first half, but had a very balanced, nice wish is a nice breath of fresh air compared to last year’s team. Indiana will not have a star scorer like Shay Ciezki was for them last season, but instead will have a more balanced attack.
“We have a really deep roster, very talented group. And every single one of them shows up every day,” Beaumont said postgame.
The Hoosier defense was great in this game and set that tone early, holding FGCU to only five points in the first quarter. The team has 10 new players, but the defensive rotations were on point.
Turnovers were an issue for IU, conceding 11 in the first half and giving up 17 as a whole. These should improve as the season goes on, but it isn’t great to see. However, they forced 19 turnovers from FGCU and scored roughly a quarter of their points off turnovers.
“We hang our hats on that side of the ball,” Moren said postgame. “We were really good, particularly in the first half. Our coverages and the way we switched and the way we were aggressive… we can be disruptive, but we can still be sound and disciplined”.
Zania Socka-Nguemen returned from her injury last year and put up 13 points and seven boards (four offensive) in the game on 5-for-6 shooting. An impressive return for the big.
Beaumont had a slow first half, but picked it up in the second, scoring nine points. She also had six boards and an assist.
True freshman and McDonald’s All-American Addy Nyemcheck looked comfortable off the bench, scoring seven with five boards, two assists, a block and two steals.
Then Alisa Williams brought a ton of aggression, getting to the free-throw line 10 times and knocking down eight of them.
Overall, Indiana showed that it is a very different team from last year. They displayed the depth and the defensive firepower that this roster presents, and they did that in a comfortable 29-point victory.
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