INDIANAPOLIS — No. 9 Indiana women’s basketball beat No. 8 Oregon 78-62 to open the second round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday afternoon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Hoosiers (18-11) led for 37-plus minutes after jumping out to an early double-digit lead.
Oregon (19-10) trimmed IU’s lead to seven points in the fourth quarter, but the Hoosiers pulled away with a 13-0 run. The Ducks missed nine straight shots during that stretch while going nearly four minutes without any points as the deficit ballooned to 21 points.
Yardon Garzon lead the way with 18 points as one of four IU players in double digits alongside Shay Ciezki (17), Chloe Moore-McNeil (13) and Sydney Parrish (10). The Hoosiers went 11 of 25 from 3-point range and improved to 9-0 this season when making 10 or more triples.
Indiana held Oregon’s leading scorer Deja Kelly to seven points on 2 of 11 shooting and she went scoreless in the fourth quarter.
The Hoosiers advance to face No. 1 USC and Big Ten Player of the Year JuJu Watkins at noon Friday back at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. The Trojans got a double-bye and top seed after winning the conference’s regular season title.
Indiana lost 73-66 to Trojans at Assembly Hall on Jan. 19.
Indiana women’s basketball shrugs off major foul trouble in win over Oregon
Indiana women’s basketball coach Teri Moren had to go much deeper into her bench than normal with Yardon Garzon, Karoline Striplin and Lilly Mester getting into foul trouble. It started when they each picked up a third foul within minutes of each other in the second quarter.
Garzon sat out the final 4:30 of the half, but IU still maintained a double-digit lead going into the break.
Moren put true freshman Faith Wiseman in for a brief stretch. It was the first time the former Miss Basketball finalist played in the first half this season. She came into the game having played a total of 28 minutes (12 in conference play).
There was a significant foul disparity in the half — IU was called for 12 fouls and Oregon four — and the Ducks had a 13-4 free-throw advantage and it kept growing from there.
It go so bad that fans gave the officials a mock cheer when Oregon was called for its first foul of the second half with 3:37 to go in the third quarter. Karoline Striplin and Lilly Meister both picked up their fourth fouls on illegal screens.
Striplin played 17 seconds in the third quarter.
Wiseman’s biggest contribution came in the fourth quarter when she grabbed an offensive rebound off a miss from Garzon and kicked it back out to her for a 3-pointer with the game tightening up. Garzon’s fourth 3-pointer of the night gave IU a 61-51 lead with 7:59 to go.
Shay Ciezki powers Indiana women’s hot start against the Ducks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Oregon’s sloppy play in the early going — seven turnovers in less than five minutes — helped IU take a 15-4 lead. The Hoosiers had 13 points off those turnovers and went on a 10-0 run with Lexus Bargesser and Shay Ciezki hitting back-to-back 3-pointers.
Ciezki had the hot hand to start with 11 points in the quarter and three made 3-pointers. She’s shooting better than 40% from 3-point range since the start of February and it was the fifth time in six games she’s had multiple triples.
The Hoosiers went 5 of 10 from 3-point range as a team in the quarter to give them more 3-pointers in 10 minutes than they had in the entire first meeting between the teams on Jan. 24 when they shot 4 of 18.
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 cruises to win vs Oregon despite foul trouble
