Sunday, 12/21/25 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Indiana Women’s Basketball (11-2, 0-1) hosted Western Carolina University (2-11) on Sunday afternoon in front of around 6000 members of Hoosier Nation at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. IU wrapped up their non-conference games for the year with a decisive 71-44 victory.
The Hoosiers held the Catamounts to 21% from the field in the first quarter while hitting 60% of their shots from the field and 40% from behind the arch. Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren gave plenty of minutes to the bench players throughout the game, with a fairly even division of time spread out, but she is always attentive when starters are on the bench.
“You can’t lose your lead, and you can’t let the other team chip into your lead,” said Coach Moren about the role of the bench players.
WCU had a spark to start the second half, jumping to a 10-9 run in the first 4 minutes of Q3, but the Catamounts could just not sustainably match up against the Hoosiers. Come the final buzzer, Indiana had dominated every statistical category except for free-throws and rebounding.
“When we miss free-throws, we run,” said Sophomore Guard Lenee Beaumont after the game. Indiana went 13-23 from the line during the game. Beaumont added, “Big Ten games are often single digit differences; we missed ten tonight and that could cost us a game.”
While the team performed fairly well on the offensive side of the ball and simultaneously held WCU to below 30% shooting from the field, Indiana was beaten badly off of the boards, both offensive and defensive. The Catamounts scored 11 second chance points, which presents a bigger picture problem for the Hoosiers, who will be moving into a conference schedule facing 9 nationally ranked Big Ten teams.
“Unacceptable is probably the nicest term I can use,” said Coach Moren about the poor rebounding throughout the game. She added, “the two problems right now for us are in the area of rebounding the ball, we’ve not done a very good job and trust me when I tell you it’s every day we’re doing a drill rebounding . . . [the team] needs to continue to know that it is something that will really hurt us if we don’t start fixing it and fixing it fast. The other thing we’ve had a problem with is fouling. We’re fouling too much.”
Despite rebounding challenges, the Hoosier managed to come together as a team, share the ball, and force turnovers.
The Hoosiers never trailed in the game with all 9 available players participating. 4 Hoosiers hit double-digit scoring, as Shay Ciezki dropped 17, Beaumont scored 14, Phoenix Stotjin had 11, and Maya Makalusku contributed 10. As a team, Indiana went 14-26 for 58% from the field, 5-12 from three-point range for 41%, 7-11 from the free throw line for 63%, pulled down18 rebounds, had 7 Assists, and 5 Steals.
Western Carolina finished 15-53 from the field for 28%, 5-22 from three-point range for 22%, 9-12 from the free throw line for 75%, 34 rebounds, 9 assists, 6 steals, and 5 blocks.
Other Notes
Before the game, Head Coach Teri Moren Presented Senior Guard Jerni Kiaku with her 1,000-point ball, after reaching that milestone last Sunday at the free-throw line. Kiaku began her Collegiate career at North Carolina Central and played her Junior season at Duquesne, where she started in all 33 games, averaging 13.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.1 steals, while shooting a team-high 47.1%.
Today’s game was the annual Teddy Bear Toss, where fans brought new stuffed animals to donate to the Bloomington Boys and Girls Club. The halftime toss filled the floor of Assembly Hall, including a giant Bison thrown out by Hoosier the Bison.
Members of the community and IU Alumni joined the band today, as most students are out of town for Holiday Break.
Former IUWBB stand-out Sydney Parrish was in the Hall to help cheer the Hoosiers to victory.
Zania Socka-Nguemen is still out with a leg injury. The Starting Forward has not been back to practice, however, is feeling whole lot better, and Coach hopes to have her back soon. No timeline as of now.
Up Next
Indiana will officially kick off the Big Ten Conference part of their season when they host Minnesota (9-3, 0-1) for a 6pm tip-off on December 29th at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.