BLOOMINGTON — Indiana women’s basketball fans didn’t have much to cheer about after honoring a trio of seniors before Thursday night’s game against No. 17 Maryland.
The Hoosiers trailed the entire second half of a 70-58 loss to their Big Ten rival in a punchless performance. It was the first win for Maryland (22-6, 12-5 Big Ten) in Bloomington since the 2019-20 season.
Indiana (17-11, 9-8) was looking to add to its NCAA Tournament resume with a fifth win over a ranked opponent, but dropped to 4-8 in Quad 1 games.
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Indiana recognized Chole Moore-McNeil, Sydney Parrish and Karoline Striplin with a brief ceremony before the game. It was fitting timing for Moore-McNeil, who tied Grace Berger’s record for career games played (148) Thursday night.
She had four points, five rebounds and 10 assists in her final game at Assembly Hall while Parrish had 13 points with three 3-pointers.
In the third quarter, Indiana tried to turn things around when Shay Ciezki and Yarden Garzon knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to make it a one-possession game. Garzon led the Hoosiers with 18 points and 15 of those came in the second half.
They both hit shots from the deep corner right in front of IU’s bench, and the brief flurry of offense matched the Hoosiers’ scoring output in the second quarter, but Maryland guard Shyanne Sellers quieted the crowd with 21 points in the fourth.
She got free for multiple open looks down the stretch to push her team’s lead back up to double digits. The senior finished with a game-high 25 points after going 1 of 7 in the first half. She went 8 of 8 from the free-throw line in the final minutes to close out the win.
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Maryland built a 30-20 lead over the Hoosiers going into halftime thanks to a 14-0 run in the second quarter.
The Terps held IU scoreless for more than five minutes to take control of the proceedings. The Hoosiers shot just 23.1% in the quarter (3 of 14), missed all six of their 3-point attempts and went into halftime averaging just .606 points per possession.
It added up to IU’s lowest scoring first half of the season, and the Hoosiers never really recovered.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women’s basketball’s shooting costly vs Maryland, Shyanne Sellers
