Indiana women’s basketball cruised back into the win column Thursday night with a 98-54 win against ULM. The Hoosiers return to nonconference play came five days after their 21-point loss to Illinois in their Big Ten opener, a conference appetizer that proved to be a harsh reality check.
Indiana had two practices in that five-day stretch.
“The biggest thing that we wanted to attack in those practices was our energy and our effort,” Shay Ciezki said. “It was probably one of the hardest two practices that we’ve had this season.”
Ciezki wasn’t the only Hoosier representative that pointed to “effort.” Teri Moren said the word 11 times in her 11-minute postgame press conference. Effort has been a common theme in Moren’s language through the early parts of Indiana’s season.
The Hoosiers’ head coach highlighted how hard her team played after a 106-95 loss to then-No. 10 Iowa State on Nov. 30. The opposite situation occurred on Dec. 3 when a fiery Moren criticized Indiana’s lack of “effort, execution, focus and energy” following an 18-point win against Western Michigan.
While it would be illogical to suggest Moren cares more about effort than she does end results, it isn’t exactly far-fetched. Fortunately for the Hoosiers, the 11 mentions of “effort” in the aftermath of the win against the Warhawks weren’t spoken as critical shortcomings but rather positive takeaways.
“The effort piece for us is something that we’ve been talking about a lot lately,” Moren said. “I thought our effort for most of the game, if not all of it, was really good. But we want to be really consistent with that.”
It started with a freshman. Less than a minute into the game, Maya Makalusky squared up her body, welcomed heavy contact and fell to the hardwood below as a whistle blew, indicating an offensive foul on ULM.
Makalusky — who started for the first time in her Indiana career — finished with a season-high 22 points and made six of her 10 attempts from beyond the arc. But it was her effort that stood out to Moren.
“She took advantage of the opportunity, the nod that she got,” Moren said. “She started the game with a charge which was very impressive. I think she knew the task, what we needed her to do.”
It was clear that the reigning Indiana Miss Basketball was playing with the energy Moren wanted as she lay flat on the Assembly Hall floor, pumping her fists in excitement after drawing the charge. For Makalusky and her teammates, that energy started with a mentality shift in the two practices leading up to Thursday’s game.
“After the Illinois game, those four days off really gave us some good practice time,” Moren said. “Monday, I don’t even think we talked about offense … It was a very defensive-oriented practice where we were just trying to regain the habit of being competitive and playing with an extra effort.”
The extra work didn’t go unnoticed. The Warhawks shot just 27.8 percent from the field. Indiana had nine steals, three blocks and forced ULM into 17 turnovers. From the opening tip to the final whistle and all the bodies diving to the floor in between, the Hoosiers’ newfound intensity was on full display.
Looking ahead, Indiana will round out its nonconference slate against Eastern Michigan and Western Carolina. In all likelihood, those are opponents the Hoosiers don’t need to play their best to beat. Regardless, Moren understands the importance of building consistency with good habits.
In her 12 years at the helm in Bloomington, the Hoosiers’ head coach has learned that managing the intangibles isn’t optional.
“You can’t control if your shots are going to go down,” Moren said. “But every single night you’re going to be able to control your effort, your energy and the urgency in which you play.”
On Thursday night, that’s exactly what Indiana did. The result? A 44-point win. But as Big Ten play looms closer, Moren knows “effort” needs to become a habit.
“The thing I’m most proud of tonight was, we’ve addressed our effort issue,” Moren said. “The biggest question for us is, can we sustain it?”
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
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