The Hoosiers’ season once again drew to a close following a loss against the Gamecocks.
9-seed Indiana women’s basketball’s season came to an end in the second round of NCAA Tournament play on Sunday with a 64-53 loss to 1-seed South Carolina at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.
This game was always going to be an uphill battle for the Hoosiers, who found themselves in a similar spot last postseason against an undefeated Gamecocks squad in the Sweet Sixteen. Indiana again played above expectations, even earning a halftime lead, but fell short in the second half.
The path to victory was there and evident, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Now the program looks to a future without Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish.
Here’s three takeaways:
They’re just that good
South Carolina is just that good.
Dawn Staley is one of the very best coaches in basketball for a reason. She always assembled talented groups that play well together with a tough defense on one end of the floor and a daunting offense on the other.
To beat the Gamecocks, you either need to match them on a talent basis or play a perfect game. The Hoosiers can’t do the former and have to rely on the latter. To their credit, it held up through twenty minutes.
But mistakes are costly and South Carolina makes you pay. Any sort of error that’s standard in the course of a normal basketball game becomes that much more dire against the Gamecocks, who can overwhelm in transition opportunities and win any war of attrition.
It’s Dawn Staley, man. It happens.
Defensive effort
Indiana can at the very least hang its hat on a pretty solid defensive performance all-around on the game. Holding South Carolina to 64 points on its own home floor is no small feat.
It was that defense that gave the Hoosiers a first-half lead. The Gamecocks shot just 10-29 from the field, 34.5%, and that can be attributed to stout effort from up and down the roster to keep them from getting solid looks.
The Gamecocks were only able to get four attempts from deep in the air in the first 20 minutes of gametime. Indiana tried to capitalize on the other end, but the Hoosiers shot a 3-12 clip of their own that kept the lead from growing.
Of all ways this could’ve gone, that’s not one I would’ve expected. South Carolina is a tough, talented team that’s gone through SEC play. I know defense is a big part of Teri Moren’s Indiana program, but still.
Which leads us to…
Size
In the big picture of women’s college basketball, Indiana has a solid amount of size. The Hoosiers start three players who are over 6’ tall and Chloe Moore-McNeil is just a hair below that.
The only one that stands out is 5’7” Shay Ciezki, but you can use some speed and quickness in your lineup offensively, even against a bigger defense, and she provides that in spades so you can live with a size disadvantage defensively.
South Carolina is something different though. The Gamecocks dwarfed the Hoosiers last year and for the most part did the same this year. They were bigger, stronger, faster and great at basketball on top of that.
It’s something to consider in matchups like this and is worth putting a pin in as Indiana charts a path forward as a program.