BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana women’s basketball team is heading into 2025 on a six-game win streak after beating Wisconsin 83-52 on Saturday afternoon at Assembly Hall.
The Hoosiers (10-3; 2-0 Big Ten) were in control after an 18-2 run in the first quarter. The Badgers (10-3; 1-1 Big Ten) scored a season-low 52 points — it was only the third time this season they scored less than 60 — as their five-game win streak came to an end.
Indiana forward Lilly Meister matched her season-high with 20 points (9 of 13) to lead all scorers. Shay Ciezki (14 points), Sydney Parrish (13 points) and Yarden Garzon (13 points) also scored in double-digits.
“Our kids executed the game plan as good as we wanted them to,” Indiana women’s basketball coach Teri Moren said. “Really happy with the way we played this afternoon.”
The Hoosiers starters were done for the day with 2:46 to go in the game.
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Indiana’s front court faces off against Wisconsin’s leading scorer Serah Williams
Indiana forwards Lilly Meister and Karoline Striplin held their ground against Wisconsin’s Serah Williams on Saturday afternoon.
The 6-foot-4 forward came into the game averaging 20.0 points per game on 54.1% shooting and 12.3 rebounds. She’s one of only four players in the conference averaging 20 or more points and recently set a career-high with 36 points in a win over Butler.
Indiana occasionally doubled Williams, but much of the Hoosiers success came from Meister and Striplin matching her physicality in the low post and contesting every one of her shot attempts while avoiding contact.
Williams, who averaged 9.3 free-throw attempts in her team’s last three games, only made one trip to the free-throw line on Saturday.
She closed out the first quarter with just two points on 1 of 6 shooting and finished the first half with as many turnovers (three) as field goals. She finished the game with 13 points on 6 of 13 shooting, it was only the second time all season she shot under 50%.
“We kept Serah uncomfortable for most of the game,” Moren said. “I thought our pace was not something she was incredibly excited about in terms of getting up and down the floor. We wore her out, that was our goal to make her tired.”
The best stretch of the game for Wisconsin came when it hit three straight 3-pointers during an 11-0 run late in the first quarter, but that scoring outburst was an anomaly. That was the only time the Badgers scored on three straight possessions and they made only one other 3-pointer the rest of the game.
They didn’t have any field goals the final 4:31 of the game.
Indiana women’s basketball has found its footing on offense
Indiana’s early-season shooting woes are long gone.
The Hoosiers shot better than 50% for a fourth straight game and fifth time in six games and also tied a season-high going 50% from 3-point range (9 of 18). They have also scored more than 80 points in three straight games for the first time since the 2022-23 season.
It was a team effort as IU players continue to share the basketball — it had 25 assists on 32 field goals — and for the first time this season really pushed the tempo. The Hoosiers had 22 fast break points with Chloe Moore-McNeil, who had a game-high seven assists, and Ciezki really pushing the pace off Wisconsin’s miscues.
The Badgers tied a season-high with 18 turnovers while IU had a season-low eight turnovers.
“We talk about how much better of a basketball team we are when we’re playing in space, when we are playing with pace and get the ball out of our hands,” Moren said. “You’ve heard me say it a lot of times, there’s moments when the ball sticks and we hold onto it. We’ve really talked about our ball movement and getting it out of our hands quicker.”
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.
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