What Teri Moren Said After Indiana Defeated Bellarmine 95-61

Teri Moren spoke to the media after the Indiana women's basketball team topped Bellarmine on Sunday.

Todd Golden | Dec 15, 2024

Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren talks with Lexus Bargesser (1) during the Indiana versus Bellarmine women's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Indiana Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind - Indiana women's basketball coach Teri Moren spoke to the media after Sunday's 95-61 victory over Bellarmine at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Moren was pleased with Indiana's unselfishness and gave an update on the status of injured guard Sydney Parrish.

Here's everything Moren had to say after the game.

Opening statement ...

Moren: A really good win. We've been working extremely hard this week. We had eight days off, as you guys know, and so some of those things that we have been working on. I thought there was a little bit of a let up there in the second half defensively, but saw some really, really good things that we did in the first half. Loved the fact that Henna (Sandvik) was really good from the outside today. All of them. Strip (Karoline Striplin) was has continued to be consistent. We got scoring from just about everybody, which is good. We stayed under our 12 turnovers, we had 27 assists, which is outstanding. So happy in the way that we came out in the first half. Just really pleased the way we share the ball and the way everybody you got on this thing.

On what has got Indiana to share the ball and complement each other well ...

Moren: I think any time you have adversity the way we've had it, other people have to step up and their roles change. We talk about that a lot. You always have to be on the edge of your seat, ready, when you're your number is called. I think about Henna and the game that she had today and just how happy I am for her. This is a kid, and you guys have heard me say it, but you know, when I tell you this kid is in the gym all the time, every day, just working on her game. It's amazing. It's not that hard of a recipe. You work, you get the results that you want. We could go through everybody, but today, I'm so excited for Henna in the way she was able to see that thing go in.

But I just think it's a matter of we've been without (Lenee) Beaumont, we've been without Lexi (Bargesser), we've been without Syd (Parrish) and so we've, we've just asked other people to step up. Going back to the Southern Indiana game, when I was very disappointed in how our post play was, it was not good enough. Really challenged Lilly (Meister) and Strip. And then Strip, comes back against Penn State and has a perfect night. And then again, comes back tonight with another consistent performance. I thought tonight we played a lot faster, tried to get out in transition earlier. Really worked on that this week. But I just think it's a matter of everybody understanding that, 'Yeah, we all have roles, but at any point our roles can change. And when I get in the game, my job is to impact it somehow, whether it's defensively or offensively.' And I thought tonight, a lot of these kids did that.

On Sydney Parrish's status ...

Moren: She's good. We talked a little bit about maybe playing some minutes. This was last week. But we just felt like, you know, she's been pleased with how the process has been for her, and feels really comfortable with the process. And so she and our doctors just felt like maybe giving her another week, just to feel more comfortable. She's been in practice, but not at full speed. I anticipate that this week. I think we'll see her in the last game on Sunday, non conference.

On sharing the ball with 15 assists on 21 makes and 68% shooting in the first half ...

Moren: I think it's in us. We see it all the time. And we've been on the other end of it too, where we haven't seen those shots go in. We're more than capable. We do our work. So I'm okay with them continuing to shoot it, even on the nights that perhaps the thing doesn't go in. You got to trust it. You got to trust your work. I'm always excited when we have 27 assists on 37 field goals (for the whole game). That's pretty impressive, and got it in a lot of different ways also, which was good. I thought we had a great inside presence with Strip, and then certainly on the outside, you know, had some things go down for us.

On Henna Sandvik and how she got confidence in herself and how coaches got confidence in her ...

Moren: You've heard me say this before. You know your your confidence can only come from your work first. And so, as I've stated, she's a worker. But you know, you're as of late with Syd going down, we've all seen Henna's minutes increase. I think any any time that you're counted on the way we count on her, and we value her on both sides of the ball, but she is a great defender, and a reliable defender, first and foremost. And then you just ask this, let the game come to her right?

Against Penn State, I thought there were some opportunities at the room that she literally just passed up. The message was, 'You've got to also be a scorer for us. You have to be a threat.' I think it's in a mature kid, who's been in our system, heard the message. We have a tremendous amount of confidence in her, just because of the work she puts in every single day. There's no reason not to have that kind of confidence. I know her teammates, every one of them, were so thrilled with how she shot it today. We need her to continue, just like Strip, to have that confidence when she comes in to knock those shots down for us and have an impact.

How does a team avoid complacency in a game that's not close at halftime ...

Moren: We have a veteran group. I always have them, once we get into halftime, they have a board that they have things we're doing well, things we got to do better. There were a lot of really good things that we were doing, but there were some things on the other side that we have to do better. And that's how you you you get them refocused, right? You talk about all the good things that they're doing. However, kills for us are three in a row, We had two kills in the first half. That's not good enough. And so you talk about the board being, 'Hey, we're doing a bunch of really good things over here, but oh by the way, we're not getting enough kills defensively. We got to refocus coming out in the second half and be better.' And I thought we weren't in the first five minutes. I thought the last five minutes of the third quarter, we were better. It's just trusting, it's relying on those veterans. We've been a lot of ball games where you have a lead, you lose a lead, and vice versa. And so, to have a lead is precious, and for us, we know what that means, that we can't lose our focus, and we got to come out and do things even better than we did in the first half. And I was not suggesting we did that, but still, we kept our foot on the gas pedal, which was good.

Has there been anything surprising in the first month-plus of the season that has surprised her ...

Moren: What's been unexpected is we haven't had all of our bodies that we thought we were going to have, right? You're never prepared for that. You go into a season and you really like your depth. You like your depth on the perimeter. You certainly like your depth in the in the low block, and then you get thrown a curve ball. Two of your guards that you're counting on a lot can't practice for a month, and we haven't seen Beau (Lenee Beaumont) yet. So those were things we did not expect, but it happens. It happens to every team in the country. So I'm not complaining, and I'm not playing the victim card, but we weren't expecting that, right? So our depth has changed on the perimeter.

Now that we got Lexi back, I feel we feel better about it. Got to get Syd back in it. But it has, it has provided Jules (LaMendola) and Henna really good experience, right? Real game, not games where it's already done, right? There's a big lead, and we can just get those guys (in the game) ... and not that those minutes don't matter, because we tell them always, whatever game minutes you get, they matter. And so it's really provided those other guys, some really good experience in minutes. But there's nothing that comes to mind that I'm shocked about. This is a resilient group. You know, they've been disappointed in the losses. They've been disappointed when we haven't played well. They're really competitive. None of that has left our basketball team and and again, we understand that the it's a daunting Big 10 schedule. There's no question, and we're still probably going to have some peaks and valleys in that, but I still think we're a really good basketball team. We can score in a lot of different ways. The nights that we put it together, we're going to be really hard to beat.

On Indiana's defense being there for most of the game ...

Moren: Our goal is under 65. They average right around 77. I thought early, especially in the first half, I thought it was tremendous. I thought we let up a little bit in the first five. I thought we were better in the last five of the third. The fourth quarter, I'll have to go back in and see, probably not as good as we would have liked it to be. But we were also, giving some of those other young kids some some time. For kids like Faith (Wiseman) and Val (Kadlecova), there's going to be some slippage and there's going to be some mess ups with those two guys, you know, just because of their youth and their inexperience, But I think overall we were pleased. I mean, this is a team that, what averages eight threes and we only gave up five. You know, No. 4 (Hope Sivori) is a kid that we were really concerned about, you know, she goes 2 for 6 and 0-for-3 from the 3-point line. No. 20 (Erin Toller) was another kid that can just air it out. And she goes 1 for 2 from the 3-point line. So those kids that, when we're when we're prepping for that we want to make it difficult for them. You know, we did a really nice job.

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