What Teri Moren Said After Indiana's 78-53 Win Over Maine

All of Teri Moren's postgame comments after Indiana improved to 5-3 on the season.

Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren talks with Julianna LaMendola (20) during the Indiana versus Maine women's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana women's basketball coach Teri Moren spoke to the media after the Hoosiers defeated Maine 78-53 to improve their record to 5-3.

Here's everything Moren had to say after Indiana's victory:

Opening statement ...

Moren: It's nice to be back in the hall in front of our fans, which were great today. Pleased with the outcome. Lot of really good things. We knew that Maine was going to test us defensively. I thought we handled ourselves for the most part, really well. There's a lot of action that you have to be able to guard. Essentially, they play five guards, so that can be match up issues when you have bigs the way we have. But I thought for the most part, defensively, we did what we needed to do. I thought Chloe (Moore-McNeil) was fabulous today. As I said to her on the way out, when she plays like that, we have a chance. I thought, Lilly (Meister) looking at her, she's one away from a double double and so, , a lot of good things. It was a bounce back win for us after a tough one in the Bahamas. Even though there were some really good things that happened in the Bahamas, the last game didn't set very well with us. We just wanted to come out and perform better. And I thought we did that today.

On the Hoosiers' variance in form from game-to-game ...

Moren: I've been doing it a long time, and trust me, of seeing I think just about everything. I just think the best recipe for us is to stay the course of what we're doing and making sure that you know our kids continue to get in before and after and they're working on their shots up outside of required time, which is, you know, been part of what we do around here and the lifestyle.
And then you just, you know, you just keep plugging away and try to continue to give them the confidence that the next one's going to go in.

You know, look, I think, I don't think any of us walked into this thing at the beginning of the season thinking that our lines of success was going to look like a straight line. I think we all kind of felt like we were going to be a little bit up and down. And I tried to prepare the kids for that, because I really thought, when you're when you're used to being able to play without a kid like Mackenzie Holmes, it's an adjustment for us. It has taken us some time to figure some of those things out. This is a team that's very together. They want to compete, they want to win. They want to figure out how to win. They want to do right by our staff, fix the things that you know we get wrong. And as I have always said, as long as you have an interested group that wants to come in every day and fix some of our shortcomings, you have a chance. We're just going to stay the course. What we're going to do, we haven't changed anything in terms of our preparation. It'll stay the same, but it's just continuing to pour into these guys, give them confidence, make sure they stay they stay tight, they stay together. There's been some challenging moments, for sure.

(Follow up question: As long as Moren sees the effort, that's what she wants ...)

Moren: Yeah, I mean, this is a veteran group. Right now we're playing without Syd Parrish, who is very important to this basketball team. I'm not making excuses. Every team in America, men's, women's, football, basketball, doesn't matter, has to go through injuries and what they think their roster might look like. And then you get to starting day, and then it completely looks different than what you you thought it might in terms of your depth.

And then you lose a kid right now, short term, a kid like Syd, who's a leader, who's has a high IQ, who talks and communicates at a really high level. They've been challenging for us, but I've liked the way that like the way that Jules (LaMendola) has responded to a new role, because, as we always tell them, you never know. You always have to sit on the edge of your seat, because you just never know when your name, your number is going to be called. And you got to be able to come in and help us and so I'm really proud of how they stuck together in spite of some of the challenges that they that we've been through early In the season.

On whether Lilly Meister has to hunt for her shot more or do her teammates need to hunt for her more ...

Moren: I think it has to happen both. She's such a different has a different mindset. Where Mack begged for the ball all the time. We got to get Lilly to be - she's not going to be Mackenzie, not suggesting that - but we have to get her to beg for the ball a little bit more. Because she is efficient around the rim. And then our guards have to do a better job of playing with their eyes up. I thought we missed her a couple times inside. We had great ball movement, but it was just side to side. Never peaked inside to see if Lilly had an advantage.

You know, the one thing that Lily will have to continue to do, and it's kind of like what was a challenge with Mack, is be able to stay in longer. You know, Mack had the same issue with not being her stamina. Then she came back between her sophomore and junior year, and her stamina was so much better. Right now, personally, I'd like to be able to keep Lilly on the floor longer. It's just we have a hard time doing that when she fatigues and tires, and she's tired, she's either going to foul or she's going to come up short on her shot. And so I think it's a balance of both. She has to do she has to be more assertive on the load block asking for the ball. We got to do a better job on the outside of finding her.

On shooting 50% from 3-point range ...

Moren: We've seen it so many times, the peaks and valleys of this game. When we're hitting those shots, we have a real chance. When we're not, as we got to see in the North Carolina game, it's going to behard to manufacture points. So it was great to see them go in and and as we always want them, the Yarden's and the Shays and the Julianna's and the Chloe's, you just want them to have a short memory. They do spend the time that's required and needed to be able to take those shots and for me as a coach to feel good about those shots. I don't feel good about kids that take a lot of those if they're not in the gym, getting extra shots up and doing extra and doing that. But for the longest time, I haven't had to worry about that.

Update on Lenee Beaumont and a possible injury for Karoline Striplin ...

Moren: Strip, she fell, this has been weeks ago, and she's just had a little bit of a nagging lower back issue that didn't keep her from playing today. This was not a good matchup for Strip. You're essentially guarding five guards out there. We try to do our best to set our kids up for success, and I didn't feel like we were doing that with Strip. She was gonna have a really hard time guarding from the pinch post. All those guards that were going to attack her. Lenee is going to have a procedure done here in the next couple weeks, so not quite sure her availability when that'll be but we finally came to the decision that she will have a procedure done on her knee.

On what grade Moren would give the first half when Maine stayed within range of Indiana ...

Moren: I would give us probably a B-minus in the respects that I think we were playing hard. I liked our effort. Again, really hard team to guard with all their actions that they run, they cut hard, You don't want two quarters to get used to their movement, but that first quarter is a lot about just getting used to the movement that you're going to have to guard for 40 minutes. I wasn't surprised that there were moments where either they had a wide open layup or we were nowhere to be found, because they put a lot of pressure on you. They're challenging team to guard. But I liked our effort. I thought once we settled in. we did a much better job of guarding and then I thought the second half we did a much better job of scoring, which I thought helped us, guard a little bit better gave us a little bit more energy.

Related stories on Indiana women's basketball

• MOORE-MCNEIL, MEISTER LIFT HOOSIERS: Chloe Moore-McNeil and Lilly Meister had big scoring efforts in Indiana's 78-53 win over Maine. CLICK HERE.

• INDIANA CAN'T FIND THE MARK IN LOSS TO NORTH CAROLINA: The Hoosiers struggled with their shot in a 69-39 loss to North Carolina in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game. CLICK HERE.

• INDIANA BEATS BAYLOR TO ADVANCE TO BATTLE 4 ATLANTIS TITLE GAME: Shay Ciezki's 34 points leads the Hoosiers to the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game. CLICK HERE.

• INDIANA BEATS COLUMBIA IN THE BAHAMAS: Indiana broke free from Columbia in final minutes as the Hoosiers advance to play Baylor in The Bahamas. CLICK HERE