Indiana women’s basketball may be getting closer to full health and that comes as the season is nearing its end — with just five games left in the regular season.
Indiana senior wing Sydney Parrish has missed the last six games with a foot injury but is ‘making progress’ and could be close to a return.
“She’s making a lot of progress. As a matter of fact, she did a little bit of our shootaround today (Sunday), and that was great to see,” Indiana women’s basketball head coach Teri Moren said following IU’s win over Purdue on Sunday. “It was great to have her back in a uniform and not in a boot, in two basketball shoes. She’s making progress. I don’t know if we’ll see her on Wednesday, but she just keeps feeling a little bit better every day.”
Parrish was averaging 10.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists while shooting 39.3 percent from three in 17 games before her injury. She was also shooting 50 percent from three on 2.7 makes per game in Big Ten games.
Indiana has gone 5-1 during Parrish’s absence with sophomore Lexus Bargesser taking over in the starting lineup. After an 0-of-11 performance in her first two starts, she turned up her efficiency and effectiveness. In the last four games, she’s averaging 9.3 points while shooting 56 percent from the field. She’s also averaging 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists over that span as well.
In total, Bargesser has averaged of 6.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in the six games since Parrish has been out.
“She’s been and I’ve said it before, she’s grown up and done some really great things for us,” Moren said on Sunday about Bargesser. “She’s had to and more than capable of doing everything she’s been showing … she’s a terrific athlete, strong and gets the ball inside. She’s proven she can lift, fake and go up. Knock shots down with some — whether or not she gets fouled or not — with bodies around her. She’s done a good job.
“It’s the great thing — she’s gotten is experience this whole time so when we get Syd back, she’ll be another kid that has logged a lot of minutes for us and that’ll be a good thing.”
For Parrish, she announced earlier this year that she would be returning to Bloomington for another season.
Indiana sits at 20-3 overall and 11-2 in Big Ten play and are in second in the conference.
The Hoosiers’ next game is Wednesday against Wisconsin.
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