Indiana Women's Basketball Takes Care Of Business With 77-57 Victory At Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Before the Big Ten expanded to the West Coast, avoiding the first day of the Big Ten Tournament was easy. Teams just had to finish in the top 10 of a 14-school conference.

With the addition of four schools to the league and a change in the tournament format, getting out of the first day is more of a challenge. A challenge Indiana had to meet on Sunday when it traveled to Mackey Arena to take on archrival Purdue in the Barn Burner Trophy contest.

At a minimum, Indiana needed to win on Sunday to avoid playing on the first day of the tournament, which starts Wednesday in Indianapolis with a 15-team format. No team wants to play five games in a five days to win the Big Ten Tournament - and you have to be seeded No. 9 or better to avoid that fate.

The Hoosiers accomplished their mission Sunday, as their first-quarter dominance over the Boilermakers proved decisive. The Hoosiers outscored the Boilermakers by 15 in the opening period and rode that advantage to a 77-57 victory in the regular season finale.

It was Indiana’s 13th consecutive win in the series, a winning streak that dates to the 2018-19 season.

“When they have 10,000 fans and almost 9,000 of them are against us, I think we thrive in those situations,” Indiana guard Sydney Parrish said. “And we knew it was going to be hard today, but we came out with a win, and I think we started the game off really well.”

Parrish certainly played a pivotal role. She led Indiana (18-11, 10-8) with 20 points and was 9 of 12 from the field to go with eight rebounds. Shay Ciezki contributed 18 points.

The game also featured a milestone reached by Yarden Garzon, who broke the school record for career 3-pointers made. She reached 206 career 3-pointers, a record held by Kris McGrade since 1994, with a 3-pointer in the first quarter.

Garzon was held without a 3-pointer until the fourth quarter, when she broke the record with 9:35 left in the game. She made another 3-pointer later and has 208 for her career – with the rest of this season and another year of eligibility remaining for Garzon.

Garzon – who scored 15 points in the game – was not made available for comment after the game, but Indiana coach Teri Moren praised her accomplishment.

“We don't have any bigger cheerleader than me and our staff. When our kids either break a record or have the double-double or a triple-double. It doesn't matter. We are their biggest cheerleaders,” Moren said.

Going into Sunday’s games, it was possible Indiana could win or lose and still avoid day one of the Big Ten Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It was also possible Indiana would have won and still had to play on day one. But the Hoosiers got the right combination of results elsewhere to avoid a scenario where Indiana won and still would have to go the long route in the conference tournament.

Indiana will be the No. 9 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. The Hoosiers will play at noon on Thursday, most likely against No. 8 seed Oregon. If Wisconsin wins at Iowa and Washington defeats Oregon at home, the Hoosiers would play Nebraska, but at the same time on Thursday.

The winner of that game will have the daunting task of playing Big Ten champion and No. 1 seed Southern California in the noon game on Friday.

As for Sunday’s game? The competitive phase of the game was over quickly.

After Purdue led 6-2 early on, Indiana used a 22-2 run over most of the balance of the first quarter to take the Boilermakers out of the contest.

The Hoosiers used a balanced attack to overwhelm the Boilermakers. Ciezki had seven points and Parrish had six in the quarter as Indiana converted 63.3% from the field in the opening period.

As good as the offense was, Moren was just as impressed with Indiana’s execution on the defensive end.

“I thought our kids came out with great intent. I thought their focus on how they got off defensively – we started the game very locked in to the game plan, very locked in together,” Moren said.

Once Indiana built its lead, it maintained serve for the remainder of the contest. Purdue’s chance to get back into the game came in the second quarter when Indiana missed eight of its first 11 shots, but the Boilermakers didn’t take advantage. They were only able to play the Hoosiers even in the second period as Indiana maintained a 15-point halftime advantage.

Purdue never got the margin down to single-digits in the second half. The Boilermakers shaved their deficit to 10 with 4:07 left in the third quarter, but Indiana responded with seven straight points and would coast to the finish line.

The loss was devastating for the Boilermakers. Combined with Rutgers’ win at Penn State, Purdue (10-19, 3-15) failed to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament.

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