What Teri Moren Said After Indiana Women’s Basketball Beat Rutgers 81-60

Indiana won its third straight game Thursday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, defeating Rutgers 81-60.

The Hoosiers scored 36 points in the third quarter on 10-for-13 3-point shooting after going into halftime with just 32 points. Sydney Parrish led Indiana with a season-high 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting, including four 3-pointers.

With this win, Indiana improved to 15-7 overall and 7-4 in Big Ten play ahead of Sunday’s game at Minnesota. Here’s everything Indiana coach Teri Moren said after the game.

Opening statement

Moren: “It was another really good win. I thought a really good second half for us tonight. First half I thought was just a little bit slow just from, I don’t know, it just didn’t feel like anything offensively we were getting much flow, much pace. But I thought the kids came out in the second half – of course the turnovers in the first half were part of the problem. Chloe knows that she has to be so much better with taking care of the basketball for us. But I thought the second half we only had the two turnovers with the starters in, some of those kids that play a lot. We went to our bench, and then we climbed over that – I think we had nine or 10 maybe – then we went to our bench and they turned it over a couple times, which sometimes you expect. But yeah, 24 assists on just the 13 turnovers, obviously we got it going tonight from the outside, especially in that third quarter, loved how we responded. Because some of those, I felt like we were getting great shots all night, they just didn’t go down. Syd got several good looks, Yarden got good looks, Shay got a couple good looks in that burst. And then it was great to see those go down in the second half for us. So really good win. This was a team that I was concerned about just because with a kid like number 32 who can really heat it up, but I thought we did a good job tonight of really trying to stay in her space. And Destiny Adams is another kid that’s played really well for them. But I thought again, another good performance defensively.”

On what’s going through her mind in the third quarter when Indiana made 10 threes and scored 36 points…

Moren: “Right, I think for me, it’s less play calling and they were just, again, it’s like anything. It’s contagious. One of them sees it go in, and then I thought Shay did a great job of she was the facilitator on a few of those. Chloe was a facilitator on a few of those. But it was just great to watch Syd, Shay, all of them, just share the ball the way they did and see that thing go in, spacing the floor and we got some really good shots. But it was just nice to see them go in because again, we got some really good looks that didn’t go down for us, and that’s happened to us a lot this year. So it was finally good to see a lot of them going in tonight.”

On how Indiana can bottle up a recent stretch of good play and carry it into future games…

Moren: “I think that they probably have gained a little bit of confidence. Certainly getting the win at Washington, and then coming home and playing so well against Nebraska, and then again tonight here, especially in that second half. So I hope like crazy that they’re gaining confidence because as we go down this stretch here, we’re gonna need to shoot it with confidence and play with confidence. But also as we go on the road here, our defense has got to travel because it’s been pretty good to us as well.”

On the satisfaction of having a good defensive performance…

Moren: “Again, we’ll go back and we’ll find something, I’m sure, to be aggravated with, but we just feel like, again, we talk to them all the time about controlling the controlables, and you can control so much on that side of the ball. It’s just having the focus, it’s understanding the strategy, the game planning, and not losing your focus like 32. She, you just gotta stay attached to her because at any point she, as you guys watched tonight, behind your back a couple times, between your legs a couple times, back and forth, a lot of her shots come off of, we call them comfort dribbles. The minute you let your guard down, the minute you let your hands come down and you’re not as pressed up to her, that’s when she can hurt you. So our kids have really tried, especially Chloe and Lexi, but all of them, have really dialed into what we’re trying to take away when game planning for these opponents. Their focus has really been good. There’s a lot of communication that’s going on on the floor, but also in those timeouts and so that’s what I’m most proud of. But yeah, we’re gonna have to have it traveling over to Minnesota over the weekend.”

On if she emphasized or changed anything that led to 24 assists tonight and 25 on Sunday, its most since Dec. 28…

Moren: “No, part of it, again, goes back to what’s plagued us for some parts of the season, and it’s been our turnovers. And then some of it’s just not been our ability to knock down open shots. That happens, it happens to the best of the best. They just have those nights where it might not go in. But I think a lot of our issues there stems – we could probably go back and look at what transpired, and our turnovers were probably high, right, and our assists were probably low.”

On the impact of playing a four-out offense, especially with Sydney Parrish…

Moren: “Well, I mean, again, when Syd decided to come here – we’ve done it with all of our stretch fours. Brenna Wise was another one and Alexa Gulbe. I think of all the fours that have been in our program, Syd’s no different. Jules LaMendola, no different at the four. I mean, they’re more comfortable facing up, they have range, and so we try to put them in position to really take advantage of their skill set. And again, some of it stems going back to Mackenzie. When Mack was first here, we just didn’t have the shooters that we’ve had probably in the last four or five years or three or four years with Mack. And we just felt like people were really, whether they were just playing off, sometimes sitting in Mack’s lap with a double-team, just daring us to shoot from the outside. So a lot of that was just in recruiting efforts. We gotta find those guys that can really stretch the floor and be threats from the outside and open anything for Mack when we had her. And it’s kind of the same, the fives, getting a kid like Striplin, having Lilly, that really their skill set is to play with their back to the basket, although Lilly can obviously step out and Strip can face up with no issues as well. It’s just part of our recruiting efforts, wanting those fours that can really stretch it out and shoot it.”

On the importance of being a well-rounded team offensively and defensively…

Moren: “Yeah, well it’s really important. It has to happen on both sides of the ball. You have to have the guys that understand the scouting report defensively and can get you the stops, get you the rebounds and then I think you have to have great balance on the offensive side with us putting the ball inside to our fives, but also sharing the ball on the outside. The last two games this group has really shared the ball, and we’ve had great balance.”

On getting the offense going after a nearly eight-minute scoring drought…

Moren: “Yeah, I think we missed six layups, we counted them in the first half, you just can’t have droughts like that against the best of the best in this league, and we’ll have to go back, to be honest with you and kind of look in that stretch, whether it was turnovers, whether it was the 3s that we like and or some of the shots we didn’t like, that we didn’t think were good shots for us. And so we’ll have to go back, but I could feel it. I didn’t know its was eight minutes, but I could feel it that we hadn’t scored in a minute.”

On what she’s feeling good about going into a challenging stretch of road games…

Moren: “Well, I feel good that we’ve won our last three games, right, and I think our kids feel good that they won their last three game. I’ve liked how we’ve gone about winning those games. We know it’s a different deal when you go on the road, but I really do, this is a – and I’ve said it before – this is a very determined group and they want to get things right. So we’re gonna have to be as good as we’ve been the last two games defensively, when we travel over to Minnesota and we go to Michigan. And then as elementary and as simple as it sounds, we’ve gotta be able to hit shots. Gotta be able to hit shots and execute on the offensive side of the ball and make sure that those assists are high and those turnovers continue to stay low. I think I can speak for our group, we understand what we have to do. Now going out and executing is something that we’re gonna have to do, but we understand that we can’t go to Minnesota and have the fourth quarter that we had at Oregon. We just can’t. So we’ve continued, and even though it’s February and by now you should have learned all those hard lessons, but it’s like we’re continuing to learn lessons throughout. Hopefully the start of February, the way we did, some of those hard lessons will hopefully benefit us when we go to Minnesota, when we go to Michigan. I only say that because listening to our kids, it’s like they talk about growth, they talk about maturity, they talk about being here before and how we’ve either held onto the lead and expanded on the lead, and or how we’ve decided to take three bad shots in a row and have let teams back in it. They’re starting – they understand that, I think, at this point.”