‘Our backs are against the wall’: In a game that Indiana women’s basketball ‘had to have’ — it did just that and got the statement win it was searching for

Thursday was as close to a ‘must-win’ as you could get for a 21-win team entering a top-15 matchup. But, for the Indiana women’s basketball program — it was exactly that after a cloud of doubt and external noise surrounded the team after Monday’s blowout loss.

Adversity always hits throughout the regular season. There’s no denying that. It’s how you respond that shows you the true character and real backbone of the team. Indiana women’s basketball got exactly the response it wanted — and needed — against No. 4 Iowa on Thursday night in an 86-69 win.

“I’m not surprised,” Head coach Teri Moren said postgame of her reaction to IU’s response. “We talk a lot about — it’s not what happens to to you, it’s how you respond to what happens to you. And this is a group that’s connected. They’re mature. They’re competitive. And they care about each other. And so I’m not surprised.”

Indiana had traveled to Stanford. Traveled to Iowa. Traveled to Ohio State all throughout the season. All three were ranked matchups against top-10 teams — and all three were losses, with two being completely lopsided.

So coming into Thursday, not only was it a massive opportunity to get that notable win that was lacking on the resume, it was also a chance to put to rest some of the naysayers.

“The past is the past and it’s all about how we respond,” All-American forward Mackenzie Holmes said. “We did a good job responding tonight but we have to build off of this … just keep building off of this and we know we are capable of playing like this night in and night out.”

“I’m not surprised by it,” Moren said. “There might be a lot of people, after they watched us on Monday play so poorly, question that. But if you’re around these guys long enough, you understand the kind of character that they have and their their ability to bounce back.”

While the team knew what was at stake, so did the Indiana basketball fan base. It was a sold out crowd. It’s almost like the fans understood their part in this matchup. Not only did they need to show up, they needed to do everything possible to help lift Indiana to a win.

It did that — and more.

“Coach said it before the game, ‘really embrace the moment’,” Holmes said. “I was just embracing it … when we have a crowd like that it really pushes us through … the adrenaline we get from the fans and the noise in Assembly Hall. I can’t really explain the feeling, it’s incredible.”

It wasn’t an easy task — it never is when the National Player of the Year and the all-time scoring leader in NCAA history is on the floor. Caitlin Clark’s resume speaks for itself and Indiana knew exactly what it was going up against.

No matter how far the lead stretched on Thursday, Clark and Iowa almost always made a mini run to cut back into their deficit. It was an 18-point lead shortly into the third quarter that shrank to just 11. Back-to-back 3s by Sydney Parrish pushed that lead right back up to 17.

Then it was then a 12-3 run by Iowa to end the quarter to cut the lead to just eight.

After some back-and-forth for much of the first part of the final quarter, the play that signaled ‘a win’ in Teri Moren’s eyes hit — a three from on the right wing from Sara Scalia to push the lead to 13. Iowa would score just one point the final 2:05.

“When Sara hit that — it was in the fourth and Syd (Parrish) had it in the corner and threw that extra (pass) to Sara right there on the wing. And you could just tell. I was like, ‘that’s the dagger right there, that’s the one that we’re gonna win the game’.”

Indiana would hold Clark to 24 points on just 8-of-26 shooting and 3-of-16 from three. She had just four points in the second half on 2-of-13 from the floor.

So, while it wasn’t easy — it was exactly the response you’re used to seeing from this Indiana women’s basketball team. From start to finish, Indiana was ready, focused, prepared and aggressive in its mindset to get a win.

“Monday was really hard for us,” Moren said. “It was a disappointing performance. None of us were happy. We got back on Monday before film, they had a player team meeting, which they have often, and we came out and had one of our best practices of the year. You could just tell that they wanted to make this thing right tonight.

“You could just see it brewing in the last two days of practice. Tuesday was really good, and yesterday wasn’t bad either. And so you could just tell there was a different feel, in terms of their focus, how they came in, and probably a little bit more stoic and serious.”

Indiana women’s basketball is a team that returned most of its core from a Big Ten regular season championship roster and NCAA Tournament one-seed from a year ago. This is a group that isn’t going to break. Not only because of the leadership from top to bottom, but more importantly, the culture that Teri Moren has worked so incredibly hard to build.

Thursday showed that and now has potentially given this team new life as the regular season winds down — with all of their goals still clearly within reach.

“I think tonight, we certainly had to have this win,” Moren said. “I try not to look too far ahead at any of that stuff, but I knew that we were part of it (the top-16 reveal). But you lose a game like Illinois (on Monday), and you think, ‘Oh, wow, our backs are against the wall, we got to we got to get that one on Thursday.’

” … I don’t know if it’s weight (off our shoulders). I just think we had to have this one tonight to help us with our resume, for sure.

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