What Teri Moren Said After Indiana Defeated Washington 73-70 On Monday

SEATTLE - Indiana women's basketball coach Teri Moren was happy that the Hoosiers were able to get a split of its Pacific Northwest road trip after Indiana held off host Washington 73-70 to win a Big Ten Conference game on Monday.

Here are Moren's comments to the media in the wake of the victory.

Opening statement ...

Teri Moren: Obviously we're excited that we're getting out of here with the win tonight. Got off to a really, really good start. I thought they climbed back into the game because they're very good team. Yarden (Garzon) was terrific - finally got back on track. So did Syd (Parrish) tonight, which was great to see. Assist are high for us, which is good. The only thing that's not so good is the turnovers, still. That that second quarter (Indiana had nine turnovers) was a terrible quarter for us.

We just have to be so much better at valuing the ball and taking care of it. I think they had 17 or 18 shots in the second quarter to our eight. And so, you know, that was a conversation at halftime. We can't have quarters where we're turning it over, they're getting nine more shots. I liked how our kids responded. Hit timely, big time shots, both Yarden and Syd. So I'm happy for those guys. I'm happy for the entire team, though, because this has been a long road trip for us. Super disappointed we couldn't pull it off at Oregon, we just didn't play well enough, and so we felt like we needed this one tonight to get back on track.

On Yarden Garzon having a slump and what Moren does to deal with it ...

Moren: She is a kid that's very confident. I have coached a lot of great shooters. You want them to have a short memory, and you don't bring it up. It's just like the next game, right? You're going to get back on track. Same thing with Syd. I think Syd has wondered whether she was going to get back on track as well. The one thing that we will do and continue to do, and hopefully this gives them confidence, is keep running things for them.

I think that can give them the best vote of confidence for me and our staff. When we run things for them we feel like they can come through for us. And so some of that happened for Yarden tonight, some of some of it was just organic in transition. She felt it. On nights like that, you just try to figure out, 'Okay, what else do I have on this play sheet that I can just keep giving her the ball?' But Syd had hit that big three, you know, in the ghost action in the fourth (quarter). That was a huge shot for us as well.

On Sydney Parrish playing with her brace on her knee ...

Moren: I don't get a sense of that at all. I think the brace makes her feel good and makes her feel supported. I think there was some conversation at one point, while she was recovering and we knew she was going to have the brace, there was a conversation that maybe the brace will eventually come off based on her confidence level. But I just think she feels more confident when she has it on. And that's fine.

I don't think it had it had anything to do with her not being able to hit shots. She does her work. She's in the gym getting thousands and thousands of shots up. It's making sure that her feet are set. Sometimes she's guilty of backpedaling into a three, maybe not catching it in tempo, or catching it in stride. When her feet are set, she's an excellent three point shooter, and on both of those that she hit for us, I mean, her feet were set. You could see as it left her hands, you knew it was going to go down.

On conversations on the sideline to make sure Indiana didn't let the game get away after Washington rallied to wipe out a 14-point Indiana lead ...

Moren: First of all, we had to make some adjustments defensively, because they were killing us with the high ball screen. Our post players, we wanted them to be in a lower plug, and they were getting a little bit overzealous, and they kept coming up and they kept going to that action. So there was a little bit of frustration with us trying to make sure that our post players understood their coverage, what we needed for them to do.

Our guards were terrific. I mean, Shay (Ciezki) Chloe (Moore-McNeil), we fought over ball screens at Oregon. We fought over ball screens tonight. It's hard, you know, it's really hard. And so, we really didn't talk much about other than, 'Hey, we've been in this position before. We've got to go down just value the ball, getting good shots. What's a good shot look like for us? We don't have to take a shot that's not right at the in the moment. Those guys have just stuck together throughout some of the adversity that they faced. And so I think they were pretty determined tonight. You know that they were going to get out of here with a win.

On Washington's last possession in which they missed a game-tying 3-point shot ...

Moren: First of all, when they had it in the backcourt, we played it perfectly. If Chloe grabs that thing and just throws up in the air, the game's over, right? But instead, she walks out of bounds with it. And so it kind of gave them an advantage, right? Now that they have it over the timeline. And so we wanted to do similar, we wanted Chloe to a little bit play like an outfielder and just try to anticipate anybody coming to the to the rim. And then I thought Chloe did a great job of climbing over the top. I'll tell you what, you know, switching things like that.

You know, fouling. That could be one thought. We didn't talk about that. The only thing we talked about was that we were going to going to stay with our own. We weren't going to switch anything. We tried to learn our lesson from the Harvard mess when we they ghosted out of it and we didn't recognize that. She still had to shoot a pretty tough shot. Chloe was on her side a little bit, defending her. I think it was rushed and she got a good look out of it. But we played it as well as we wanted to.

On what the 48 hours were like between the Oregon loss and the Washington game ...

Moren: We practiced at the Seattle Storm practice venue (on Saturday). They were terrific. We only went about an hour and five minutes. Spirits were high. Focus was good. Yesterday we came here in practice for probably a solid two hours. Same thing. Our practices have been so good. They have been so good in terms of the focus, them understanding game plans, them being about the scouting report, how we're going to stop teams. Energy, I haven't had to coach. Like I said, this is a team that realized we let one slip away at Oregon, because we had the lead, we should have been able to keep the lead. So we got to own that and we did.

But as I mentioned, you got to squash it, and you got to move on, because Washington is a very, very good basketball team. I thought our guys did a great job defensively. We really did a nice job on zero (Sayvia Sellers) did a great job on Elle (Ladine). They're really, really good players, and for us to be able to keep them in check tonight (Sellers had 11 points, Ladine 10), I thought that was big for us. And so, give our kids credit. I said we'll see what we're made of. And I thought our kids showed up in the right way. It was a hard, hard fought win and, and so I'm really proud of them.

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