What Teri Moren Said After Indiana Women's Basketball Beat Purdue 78-56

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana got back in the win column after two road losses with a 78-56 victory over in-state rival Purdue in the Barn Burner Trophy game Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

The Hoosiers jumped out to a 20-2 lead five minutes into the game and had 11 fast break points in the first quarter. Sydney Parrish, Shay Ciezki and Yarden Garzon each scored 16-plus points, and Indiana scored 27 points off Purdue's 24 turnovers.

With this win, Indiana improved to 16-9 overall and 8-6 in Big Ten play ahead of Thursday's home game against No. 9 Ohio State.

Here's the full transcript of Moren's postgame press conference.

"Well, there's a lot to be – first of all, let me just start by saying what a great crowd we had today. You anticipate any time it's Indiana-Purdue a big crowd, so really grateful that our fans came out and were very loud today. They got to see a really good first half by our kids, just the hot start that they got off to, a lot of really good things were going our way – hit-aheads started it, some threes, Yarden being really aggressive. I thought Syd Parrish did a great job today defensively. We got some run-outs. We executed. And then in that second half, it just seemed like Purdue's press kind of slowed us down, took a lot of any kind of rhythm out of what we were trying to do. They hit shots in the third, and the fourth quarter I thought was just we took some really not good shots for us, and I just thought the play was a little bit slower. So that was kind of disappointing. We didn't get near as many run-outs as we did in the second half as we did in the first. But shot it obviously well, too many turnovers again. Our 18 assists, still would like to get that, if we can climb over the 20 mark with that. But too many turnovers, just silly turnovers. But percentage-wise, 50% from the field, 56% from the three and certainly over 85% from the free throw line, so shot the ball well. But still a lot we can clean up."

On what's led to Yarden Garzon's streaky shooting this year, and how important it is for her to carry over today's performance into future games...

Moren: "You know, it's just like anything else that you guys ask. If I knew that – if I knew the answer to that, I would fix that as quickly, you know. Here's what I think. Knowing Yarden the way we do, I think she was disappointed in how we lost at Michigan. She only took four shots. We gotta figure out how to get her more of those. I just thought today she came out and she was more aggressive. She can score in a lot of different ways, we just need her to have that mentality that she had today with, just like I said, with being more aggressive. I thought she played with great pace today. Obviously he shots went down, but I just thought coming off ball screens she was really trying to make something happen. But we need her, we need her consistency, we need her to be aggressive for us because she helps us so much, not just offensively, but also defensively."

On Karoline Striplin's five assists and how she can take advantage of her court vision...

Moren: "Well, some of the stuff, too, that again, agree with her court vision, but some of the stuff that we run lends itself to that – her making specific reads in what we're looking for. But the play right before halftime, that was just, that just happened. That was she and Chloe making a play, just working together on that little drop-pass layup. But yeah, she's experienced, she's a veteran and you expect her to make plays like that. We do, with some of the things we're running offensively, the ball is in the hands of our fives often. So we trust them to make the right reads and the right decisions. But I thought she did a really good job today of finding the right person, but also delivering the pass."

On Sydney Parrish not wearing a knee brace today...

Moren: "I didn't even know that. Is that what it is? Is that why she got in those passing lanes? Had those four steals? Yeah, again, she did. Like I said, honest to goodness, I didn't even see that she didn't have that thing on, but you know, I have to believe, and you were at the Michigan game, we had some miscues there down the stretch defensively, and she was involved in some of those. So I felt like Syd was going to come out super motivated today just to play well, and I thought she did on both sides. But those steals that she had were pretty impressive."

On her message to play faster today and if that's an ideal for the future to continue...

Moren: "Well, we always try to play fast. That's the first offensive key on the board is always we want to push the pace, we want to set the pace, we want to get those hit-aheads, we want to get those layups, we want to get those rhythm threes, we want to see if we can get a piece of the paint and not just a good shot but a great shot by getting everybody involved. So today was just, we just got a couple really great hit-aheads, just eyes were up, executed right over the top a couple times. But you always want to play that way, but we want to play under control."

On whether Indiana's13 steals are a product of the opponent, being back at home, or needing to win after two losses...

Moren: "I think it's all of it. I think it's all of it. I think it's a great rivalry, and one of the best in college sports and it's the state of Indiana, which makes it so special. And again, I have great respect for Katie and her staff and how they go about their business. But it is a rivalry game, this is a Barn Burner [Trophy] game, and so that trophy means something to that group and they want to keep it here another year. Being back in the hall is always a special place when you have our fan base behind us. And it is Indiana-Purdue. But again, after such a tough way to lose a game against Michigan and come back and try to get this thing back on the track was equally as important today for us."

On how she'd assess her team's performance in the second half...

Moren: "Well again, I gave our first-half performance an A and our second-half performance a solid C. I'd have to go back and watch film and see. I do think we took some shots that we don't want to take. I think it had a little bit to do with Purdue's press slowed us down a little bit and made us take time off the clock. And so any time you do that and get it across the timeline, you're working with less clock. But we didn't – we gotta be able to execute for a full 40 minutes, and I'd have to go back in that second half, especially the third and the fourth quarter, and just kind of see what didn't go right for us. But we didn't run either. We didn't run in the second half like we did in the first. But some of that I thought, a lot of that was Purdue."

On the keys to playing well in difficult upcoming games against ranked teams Ohio State, Michigan State and Maryland...

Moren: "Well, the keys are we have to take care of the basketball. We have to compete like crazy on the boards. We have to be sound and disciplined defensively. And then, as elementary as it sounds, we gotta hit shots. We gotta hit shots. So when we hit shots, we share the ball – and this is evidence, we have evidence when our assists are high, our turnovers are low, we win a lot of our games, and we're sound defensively."

On rebounding being a struggle at times and its importance moving forward...

Moren: "Well, you know, we did such a great job at Michigan. We did a terrible job at Minnesota, bounced back and did a really good job at Michigan. And then here tonight, I think we were plus one. But it's all of us. It's not just the post players. It's the guards making contact and boxing out. It's everybody pursuing that ball, and our kids know it. They know how important possessions are both ways, that we have to have them, but they also know that the less that the opponent has them, that's good for us. So it's really important. It's been a little bit – rebounding and turnovers have been a reoccurring issue for us. But going down the stretch here, we gotta stop it from being an issue."

On never losing to Indiana as a player at Purdue and now beating Purdue 12 straight times as Indiana's coach...

Moren: "Well again, it's fun to be a part of something that gets people so excited. Whether it's football, whether it's basketball, it doesn't matter. Any sport, when it's Purdue-Indiana, there's gonna be some specialness to it. And the fact that we've been able to do what we've been able to do the last several years has been really, really special for me, but for our players as well. It's those kids, the Ali Patberg's and the Keyanna Warthen's that are on our staff now to Mackenzie Holmes, to the Grace Berger's that have had so much to do with those wins, whether we were at Mackey or here in the hall. So it's fun to be a part of, but I look at it as just another game. This was just another game on our calendar, or on our schedule, that I thought we gotta get this one today, and it just happened to be Purdue. Any time you come off of two back-to-back losses, it's like, how can we get back on track? So to me, Purdue, this game just happened to be the next most important game for me. But I think for our kids, especially Syd Parrish, who's from this state and realizes what the rivalry's about – now Strip had no idea what the Barn Burner Trophy was and how that came about, so she had a little bit of a history lesson in what rivalries are and that Purdue is our rival. So I think Syd set the table for us today, as far as this is a really important game that we need to make sure that we keep that trophy here for another season."

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