BLOOMINGTON — Indiana women’s basketball badly needed a get-right game after another rough stretch.
Enter the Big Ten’s worst team.
Indiana completely dominated in-state rival Purdue Saturday, cruising to a 78-56 victory at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
IU (16-9, 8-6 Big Ten) kept the Barn Burner Trophy in Bloomington with the win, its 12th in a row over the Boilermakers (9-16, 2-12).
The rivalry provided all the motivation Sydney Parrish needed for the game.
“We were playing Purdue. I think a lot of people know how a kid from Indiana feels about the team up north,” the graduate student said after the game. “And we had to bring it today.”
Indiana opened the game on a 20-2 spurt that prompted Purdue head coach Katie Gearlds to call two timeouts in the first quarter. That gave the Hoosiers more than enough separation to last the rest of the game.
Purdue struggled with turnovers all day, with many of the being unforced errors. The Boilermakers committed seven turnovers in the first quarter and six in the second period, and they ultimately finished the game with 24. They paired those giveaways with brutal fastbreak defense, regularly allowing IU players to blow by them in transition for easy buckets. Indiana racked up 20 fastbreak points on Saturday.
The Hoosiers’ efficient shooting also contributed to their dominance. They finished the game at 50 percent from the field, and they went 8 for 16 from 3-point range. IU also posted a strong 14-for-16 clip at the foul line.
Parrish played without a knee brace on Saturday for the first time since her injury in December. She joked that she felt faster without the brace, but that was news to Moren, who didn’t realize Parrish ditched the brace until someone asked about it after the game. The Fishers, Ind. native turned in a strong performance, shooting 7 for 11 from the field and 3 for 5 from 3-point range for a team-high 19 points. She added three rebounds, one assist with two turnovers, and four steals.
“I felt like Syd was gonna come out super motivated today, just to play well. And I thought she did, on both sides,” IU head coach Teri Moren said. “Those steals that she had were were pretty impressive.”
Yarden Garzon struggled over Indiana’s recent two-game losing streak, but the junior bounced back nicely against Purdue. She shot 7 for 12 from the field and 2 for 5 from beyond the arc for 18 points, with eight rebounds, four assists with four turnovers, and two steals. Garzon came out far more aggressive in this game than she’d been in recent games, scoring IU’s first five points and putting up seven in the game’s first 2:03.
The Hoosiers need her to turn this performance into momentum going into a big stretch of games.
“She can score in a lot of different ways. We just need her to have that mentality that she had today of just being more aggressive. I thought she played with great pace today. Obviously, her shots went down. But I just thought coming off ball screens, she was really trying to make something happen,” Moren said. “We need her. We need her consistency. We need her to be aggressive. She helps us out so much, not just offensively, but also defensively.”
Shay Ciezki also enjoyed a solid outing, chipping in 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including a 2-for-3 mark from the 3-point line. The Penn State transfer added one rebound, three assists with three turnovers, and one steal.
IU is back in action on Thursday at home against No. 9 Ohio State. That game is the first of three straight critical matchups for Indiana’s NCAA Tournament hopes, as the Hoosiers play at No. 22 Michigan State next Sunday and host No. 17 Maryland on Feb. 27.
“I think that they’re huge opportunities,” Parrish said. “Those are really big games that will help us later in the year, hopefully. So, (the keys are) knowing the value of those and knowing that we need to play like this — tonight, how we came out tonight, we need to play like that against those teams.”
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