Throughout the first leg of the regular season for Indiana women's basketball, the Hoosiers have faced tough defensive opponents that have broken down the Indiana offense. It was significantly shown when the Hoosiers faced the No. 14 North Carolina Tar Heels in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament championship and were held to just 39 points.
In the return of the Hoosiers after Thanksgiving break, Indiana saw a zone defense for the entirety of the game from the Maine Black Bears on Sunday afternoon. This was the first time all season that Indiana had faced a zone for 40 minutes, and they ultimately thrived, winning 78-53.
It's not rare to see a team play a 2-3 zone throughout a basketball game, and it makes sense for this Black Bears team considering its starting five consists of five guards. The tallest player in that five is senior guard Paula Gallego, who is six feet tall.
“We knew that Maine was going to test us defensively,” head coach Teri Moren said. “I thought we handled ourselves really well for the most part. There's a lot of action that you have to be able to guard. Essentially, they play five guards, so that can be matchup issues when you have bigs the way we have in Lilly (Meister) in (Karoline) Striplin.”
Meister, a junior forward, took advantage of the mismatch all day, recording 18 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes on the floor. The Hoosier offense was working the perimeter for most of the game, which got Maine caught up outside of the paint to leave Meister open for an easy bucket most of the time.
Indiana's offense was run by graduate student guard Chloe Moore-McNeil. She got off to a hot start, recording Indiana's first five points in under a minute. She continued that with 22 points and went 4-for-5 from long range. Moore-McNeil recorded her fourth career 20-point game and her second of the season.
The Indiana offense put on a clinic, mainly in the second half, when they pulled away from Maine when they went on a 15-4 run to start the second half. Indiana exploited the weaknesses of the Black Bears by stretching the defense and knocking down perimeter shots by forcing the guards to extend out.
From long range, the Hoosiers knocked down 11 3-pointers and shot 52.6% from the floor. The hot shooting started early in the game, as the Hoosiers didn't miss a 3 until their sixth attempt and started off the game going 5-for-5 from deep. Indiana's ball movement was on point, as they opened up lanes and created space, allowing them to find their forwards in the paint.
But it was a great all-around performance for the Hoosiers as well, and 53 points allowed is the fewest of the season. Indiana had a total of nine blocks, which is a season-high, and tied its season-high in steals with 11. Along with the defensive performance, they also controlled the pace, and their combination of power in offense and defense was too much for Maine to handle.
It was the most dominant game for the Hoosiers all season.
“I just think the best recipe for us is to stay the course of what we're doing,” Moren said. “They're working on the shots or getting shots up outside of required time, which has, you know, been part of what we do around here, the lifestyle. And then, you just keep plugging away and try to continue to give them the confidence that the next one's going to go in.”
It doesn't get easier for Indiana, as they first host Southern Indiana on Wednesday, Dec. 4, and then travel to the Happy Valley to start Big Ten play against Penn State on Saturday, Dec. 7.
