Indiana Women Pull Away From Columbia Late In Battle 4 Atlantis Victory

Indiana broke free from Columbia in final minutes as the Hoosiers advance to play Baylor in The Bahamas.

Lilly Meister looks for her shot against Columbia in the first round of Battle 4 Atlantis on Saturday at the Atlantis Resort Imperial Ballroom in The Bahamas. / Indiana athletics

Indiana’s women’s basketball team played its third Ivy League team of the season in its opening game at Battle 4 Atlantis as the Hoosiers faced Columbia on Saturday.

In its first two contests against Ivy teams – Indiana beat Brown by 22 and lost by four to Harvard in overtime in the first week of the season.

Indiana’s performance against Columbia could fairly be placed in the middle between those two results. The Hoosiers struggled to shake loose from the Lions, but Indiana pulled away late for a 72-62 victory at the Atlantis Resort Imperial Ballroom in The Bahamas.

Lilly Meiser paced Indiana with 20 points and she added eight rebounds.

“She was fantastic around the rim and very consistent in scoring the ball for us,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said. “I think Lilly is a kid that because of the minutes she’s getting and how much we need her she’s going to continue to step up and answer the bell.”

Yarden Garzon added 18 points and 10 rebounds. It was Garzon’s second career double-double and her first since her freshman season when she had 20 points and 10 rebounds in a game against Ohio State. It came on Garzon’s 21st birthday.

Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish both had 10 points for the Hoosiers.

Indiana (3-2) also welcomed the return of guard Lexus Bargesser. She played 10 minutes and scored four points in her first game of the season after missing four games with an injury.

Indiana converted 45.6% from the field, but the Hoosiers had to work their way into a good rhythm offensively.

Indiana trailed 11-10 after the opening quarter, one in which the Hoosiers were 5 of 12 from the field with no 3-point shots made. Columbia’s Cecelia Collins got off to a hot start with 6 points in the opening period. Along with Riley Weiss, Collins co-led Columbia with 17 points.

Indiana managed to pull ahead in the second quarter, but neither team had more than a four-point lead in the period. Free throws by Garzon and Bargesser in the final 47 seconds staked Indiana to a tentative 27-24 lead.

The Hoosiers played their best in the first half of the third period. A 16-8 run capped by a 3-pointer by Garzon put Indiana in front 43-32 with 6:02 left in the quarter.

Columbia roared back. A 10-1 run cut Indiana’s lead to 46-45 with a minute left in the quarter.

Indiana enjoyed a brief five-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Lions (4-2) would not release their grip. Columbia took a 59-58 lead with 4:02 left on a Weiss jumper.

It was tied at 60 with 2:39 left when the Lions finally ran out of steam. A pair of free throws by Moore-McNeil with 2:21 left started a decisive 6-0 run for the Hoosiers. Indiana would finish the game with a 6-0 run as Columbia missed six of its final seven shots.

“We had to grind it out and sometimes you just have to do that,” Moren said.

One thing that helped the Hoosiers in the second half was a 20-10 rebounding edge.

Yarden Garzon handles the ball against Columbia in the first round of Battle 4 Atlantis on Saturday at the Atlantis Resort Imperial Ballroom in The Bahamas. / Indiana athletics

“I feel like everybody understood how important (rebounding) is,” Garzon said. “We couldn’t let them score from second chances anymore and the coaches did a great job in emphasizing that.”

Indiana will play Baylor in a Battle 4 Atlantis semifinal at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. The Bears wiped out Southern Mississippi 101-55 in another first round game. Five Bears reached double-figures led by Darianna Littlepage-Buggs with 19 points.

The game will be carried on streaming service Flohoops, but Indiana being in the winner’s bracket means the Hoosiers’ last game will be carried on ESPN2 on Monday.

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