BLOOMINGTON — Three small steps separate the courtyard space in front of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall’s south facade and the entry to Cook Hall on Indiana University’s athletic campus.
Sixteen light structures stand tall in that space in a grid formation. One row of four behind the top of the steps, and the other 12 spread out in the area in front of the bottom. The stairway sits 60 steps from the closest door of Assembly Hall’s south entrance, and 146 steps from Branch McCracken Court.
On this Monday in late March, that space outside — and eventually, that arena — buzzed with energy all evening. Indiana women’s basketball faced its biggest game of the season, a second-round NCAA Tournament battle against Oklahoma. The Hoosiers spent all year working to get back to this stage after suffering the biggest heartbreak of their respective athletic careers at the same point last year.
But around 3 ½ hours before tipoff, that area was quiet. It was a windy afternoon, but warm. After IU’s shootaround, an hour before she needed to get ready for the game, Sydney Parrish sat on the top step outside Cook Hall.
She needed a moment of silence, spent alone, to clear her head. So she went outside to get some sun.
The senior doesn’t do that often, if ever. She typically collects her thoughts while sitting in Indiana’s locker room. But ahead of this big game, Parrish wanted some fresh air.
She absorbed the peaceful, warm, early-spring breeze, and one of the last moments of calm she’d get before one of her biggest games. While Parrish sat on the steps, an unknown student spotted her while running nearby. As he passed by, he said, “Good luck today, Sydney!”
That meant more to Parrish than the runner could ever know.
“It’s just a moment that stood out to me, and I think it’s something I’ll always remember. I wish I knew who it was,” Parrish told The Daily Hoosier in the locker room after the game. “I was like, ‘I think I needed someone to just say that.'”
Shortly after that, a girl walked by with her mini goldendoodle — the same breed as Parrish’s dog, Chanel Malibu Barbie.
Parrish asked if she could pet the dog, and the owner said yes.
“That dog was so happy,” Parrish said. “I told her, ‘This is what I needed right now.'”
Those moments, well before the game tipped off, helped the guard enter this big night in the right mindset.
Parrish’s season became tumultuous after a foot injury cost her seven games on the court and limited her in several others. She’s still playing through some pain, but is doing much better because of her hard work rehabbing the injury.
Monday was her seventh game back after returning to action, and this was the healthiest she felt both physically and mentally going into a game since then. That made a difference. Parrish turned in, perhaps, her strongest performance since the injury.
The senior scored 17 important points, and Indiana pulled out a 75-68 win to reach its third Sweet 16 in the last four years.
Parrish went to a Sweet 16 with Oregon in 2020-21. But this time felt a lot different.
“When I was in the Sweet 16, it was during the bubble, so there were no fans. I couldn’t see my family. I couldn’t cheer with the student section. I couldn’t see my teammates after the game,” Parrish said. “So this feels a lot better.”
A grand finale
With Mackenzie Holmes, there was never a doubt.
Everyone in Assembly Hall knew she’d step up in the game’s biggest moments.
The graduate student had uncharacteristically missed some shots throughout the night that she normally makes look easy. But the Sooners had very few answers for Holmes. They couldn’t stop her from getting the ball. They couldn’t stop her from making her moves and creating her looks. They could only hope she’d miss.
The three-time All-American battled through the knee issues she’s suffered at the end of the last three seasons, and she endured fatigue late in the game. But the Hoosiers continued to feed her in the post. And she delivered when they needed it most.
“You never get used to Mackenzie Holmes and how she plays. She’s astonishing. Even in practice, you’re just like, ‘How does she do that?'” freshman Jules LaMendola said. “I trust her regardless of the points or the score or the stats. I knew that she was going to step up for us tonight like she always does, and she did.”
Holmes scored six straight points during a critical 1:09 late in the fourth quarter, including the layup with 1:17 remaining that put IU ahead for good. It sparked what became a 10-0 run that decided the game. She scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, and 29 on the night. IU needed them all.
This was the final game at Assembly Hall for the program’s all-time leading scorer, and she ended her Bloomington career with one last vintage performance.
“She’s one of the greatest players to ever put on the Indiana jersey, and I expected nothing less from her tonight,” Parrish said. “This is her court. This is her place. And she left a mark today.”
The Hoosiers celebrated on the court after the game ended, and head coach Teri Moren gathered the team in a huddle to embrace the moment. Before long, the team took off across the court, and Holmes led her teammates up the bleachers that held IU’s student section.
The forward memorably did the same thing in 2022, when IU beat Princeton to reach the Sweet 16. This wasn’t a premeditated reenactment — Holmes asked Moren if it was OK in the team huddle.
“We had to get the win first,” Holmes said. “I’m too superstitious to be thinking that far ahead.”
Arielle Wisne and Chloe Moore-McNeil are the only players left who witnessed that scene in 2022. But the rest of the team had seen the videos of that moment, and when they saw Holmes run towards the student section again, they knew what was coming.
The entire team soaked in that moment. Sara Scalia joined Holmes at the top of the bleachers, and triumphantly threw her arms in the air. Yarden Garzon called it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
For Holmes, it was the only way to wrap her illustrious career at the arena that became her home.
“It was amazing,” Holmes said. “Everyone who knows me knows how much I love being a Hoosier, so to be able to spend my last moments at Assembly Hall with the best fans, best student section in the country is just amazing.”
‘Not afraid of the moment’
Garzon sat in the locker room after the game enjoying the victory, while wearing a silver necklace and holding its small plate in her hand.
The jewelry was new, but its message wasn’t.
The plate read, “Bring Them Home,” referring to the Israeli hostages held in captivity by Hamas. In November, Garzon wrote those same words on a wristband she’s since worn in every game this season. She’d wanted to get the necklace for a while, and IU Hillel helped her acquire it.
“It means a lot to me, and I want to use my stage as an athlete, as a college athlete, to bring it up,” Garzon said. “I feel like this is what I can do, my part, a little bit to help with our situation. So I’m doing the best I can.”
The sophomore’s season has been a balancing act from the beginning.
Garzon has expanded her game, but experienced some growing pains in doing so. But that all happened while she worried for her homeland and her family. Israel has been at war since early October, and since then, the Ra’anana native has paid close attention to the news. She’s watched and shared clips of horrors in her country. Her hometown was attacked in mid-January. She’s remained in constant contact with her family and friends at home, praying for their safety.
She’s had to compartmentalize everything she’s seen to be able to focus on basketball. And that’s a lot to put on a 20-year-old college sophomore.
“It’s hard. It’s definitely hard,” Garzon said. “I’m watching the news a lot. I’m watching the news every day. I’m keeping up with everything. I’m really thinking that and believe that everything I’m doing here, there is a purpose under it. And I’m trying to do everything that I can to help, in my way, my country and my people, so I’m trying to raise the awareness here.”
By all accounts, Garzon has handled the situation with aplomb.
She’s felt continuous support from her teammates and coaches, her Hillel peers, and IU’s fans. When the Hoosiers faced Stetson in early December, many fans wore blue shirts that said “I stand with Yarden” on the front, along with the Star of David on a basketball.
On the court this season, the sophomore both enjoyed some standout performances and endured some struggles. But she always maintained self-confidence, and has made clutch plays on several occasions.
She did it again on Monday. With 39 seconds remaining and IU up by two, Garzon hit a huge pull-up jump shot in front of the foul line. It gave the Hoosiers a little cushion, which they used to pull away with the victory.
Garzon was just 1 for 9 from the field when she took that crucial shot. But that didn’t faze her; very little does.
“She is not afraid of the moment. She’s hit some big shots for us in close games. This is not her first one. She’s uber confident in her play, in herself as a basketball player. The tighter the game is, the better she likes it,” Moren said. “It takes a lot of courage to take that shot on a night where her shots weren’t going in as easy. But we were not surprised when she took it and she stuck it in that moment.”
Vengeance and relief
Grace Berger sat in the bleachers behind the scorers table, close to Indiana’s bench.
Well after the game went final, she still wore a wide smile on her face.
IU’s pain from the Miami loss last year was particularly lasting for Berger, as that ended her Hoosiers career. She didn’t have the opportunity to personally avenge that agony.
But Monday, Berger could watch on, take pride from her former team’s accomplishment, and know she helped make this happen. Her former teammates couldn’t help but feel happy for her.
“Tonight was for Grace and what we weren’t able to do for her last year,” Holmes said. “And as sad and frustrating as it was that Grace couldn’t leave here on a win, we just know that she’s proud of us, and we have her back.”
Soon enough, Indiana will turn its attention to the tall task of facing undefeated South Carolina in the Sweet 16. This win isn’t the end of IU’s season, and the team will surely feel disappointed if it can’t pull off the big upset next weekend.
Some within the program, like Moren and her assistants, may have quickly turned their attention to the Gamecocks. But most of Indiana women’s basketball will have the next three to four days to think about that. Monday night was worth savoring on its own, without regard for what’s next.
The Hoosiers used the Miami loss as motivation all year. They never wanted to feel that way again. They talked about that game and those moments so often, whether internally or when prompted by media, they grew tired of hearing about it.
“We always talk about how we did so many amazing things throughout the regular season, but that loss against Miami defined us. And that was a frustrating fact,” Holmes said. “We didn’t want that to define us this year.”
So for some, beating Oklahoma provided as much relief as it did joy. The Hoosiers relished the victory, but this lifted a weight off their shoulders. Even newcomers like LaMendola, who didn’t physically experience last season’s heartbreak, felt it vicariously through their teammates.
These players badly wanted to put last season behind them for good. And they knew, deep down, what it would feel like if that disappointment happened again.
Given how long the Hoosiers spent thinking about last year, and how much they’d been through this season — both individually and as a team — to get back to that same point, Monday’s game was a massive juncture, made possible by a collection of smaller moments.
And after fighting hard to win a close, tense game against a tough opponent, Indiana earned the right to both celebrate and exhale.
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