Indiana\u00a0women\u2019s\u00a0basketball\u00a0was\u00a0reeling from\u00a0a\u00a034-27\u00a0halftime lead\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0University of Illinois Chicago\u00a0on\u00a0Friday\u00a0night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Hoosiers, who\u00a0shot\u00a010 for 32 from the field\u00a0and\u00a02 for 11 from\u00a03-point\u00a0range\u00a0in the first half,\u00a0were\u00a0in desperate need of a difference maker in the second\u00a0half.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Senior guard Shay Ciezki\u00a0was the difference for Indiana.\u00a0Something seemed to\u00a0trigger for\u00a0Ciezki, who\u00a0exploded after the break.\u00a0The Buffalo, New York, native\u00a0outscored\u00a0the entire UIC team 25-22 in the second\u00a0half\u00a0and\u00a0led\u00a0Indiana to a 72-56 victory Friday\u00a0night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the first half, Ciezki was\u00a03 for\u00a08 from the\u00a0field\u00a0with\u00a010 points. She also made Indiana\u2019s only two successful 3-point attempts in the first half, going 2 for 4\u00a0from beyond the\u00a0arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the second half, Ciezki dropped 25 points,\u00a0more than\u00a0half of Indiana\u2019s 45 total\u00a0in the period.\u00a0Her shot was lethal,\u00a0scoring\u00a09\u00a0for 13 from the field\u00a0and 5\u00a0for 6 from\u00a0long\u00a0range\u00a0in the third and fourth periods.\u00a0She even recorded 18 straight points for Indiana from the\u00a0second half\u00a0of the third quarter to the start of the\u00a0fourth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Overall, Ciezki scored 35 points\u00a0in the Hoosiers\u2019 win, her highest point\u00a0total\u00a0with the\u00a0Cream and\u00a0Crimson.\u00a0She shot 12 for 21 from the field and 7 for 10 from 3-point range,\u00a0coming up with\u00a0all but two of Indiana\u2019s nine made 3-point shots.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShay had a night,\u201d head coach Teri Moren said postgame,\u00a0chuckling lightly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Penn State transfer ran the offense all night, acting as Indiana\u2019s primary ballhandler and main shot creator. While others\u00a0mainly looked\u00a0for open teammates to\u00a0pass to\u00a0on the perimeter, Ciezki often attacked the paint\u00a0\u2014\u00a0drawing multiple and-one opportunities\u00a0\u2014 and the 3-point\u00a0line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ciezki\u2019s best scoring performance in an Indiana jersey came in clutch, as all other\u00a0Hoosiers\u00a0combined for 16 for 39. Redshirt sophomore guard\u00a0Len\u00e9e\u00a0Beaumont\u00a0shot 2 for 6\u00a0from the field,\u00a0freshman\u00a0guard Nevaeh\u00a0Caffey and\u00a0sophomore guard Valentyna\u00a0Kadlecova\u00a0were a combined 3-for-13\u00a0shooting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sophomore\u00a0forward\u00a0Zania\u00a0Socka-Nguemen\u00a0was the only other\u00a0Hoosier\u00a0to shoot over 50% from the field Friday night.\u00a0She went 8 for 13 from the field, earning a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds in 33 minutes\u00a0played.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first time in the 2025-26 season, Indiana\u00a0and its\u00a0brand-new\u00a0roster\u00a0faced real adversity from\u00a0an\u00a0opponent. Down\u00a07 points\u00a0at halftime,\u00a0Hoosier fans\u00a0got the chance to see how the squad would react to its first real test. Among\u00a0them\u00a0was\u00a0Moren.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was as interested probably as you guys to see how we would respond,\u201d Moren said.\u00a0\u201cWhen you have so many\u00a0new faces, so many new pieces that have not met adversity yet,\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0always curious\u00a0to how they\u2019re\u00a0gonna\u00a0respond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still,\u00a0Ciezki\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0have\u00a0done\u00a0it alone.\u00a0Socka-Nguemen\u00a0was successful inside the paint, but more players will need to share in the outside success if Indiana\u00a0wants\u00a0to be competitive in Big Ten\u00a0play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For now,\u00a0however,\u00a0Indiana\u00a0can revel in the fact that they\u00a0have\u00a0both\u00a0a\u00a0star and\u00a0leader\u00a0in Ciezki.\u00a0Even after her best performance as a Hoosier, her postgame press conference answers were filled with\u00a0\u201cwe\u2019s\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith\u00a0\u2018Z\u2019 (Socka-Nguemen)\u00a0being open, we have shooters on the outside,\u201d Ciezki said. \u201cThey had to guard everybody tonight and I was able to knock down some\u00a0shots.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Follow reporters Savannah Slone\u00a0(@savrivers06<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0srslone@iu.edu<\/a>) and Max Schneider (maxschn@iu.edu)<\/a>\u00a0and columnist Sean McAvoy\u00a0(@sean_mc07<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0semcavoy@iu.edu<\/a>)\u00a0for updates throughout the Indiana women\u2019s basketball season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana\u00a0women\u2019s\u00a0basketball\u00a0was\u00a0reeling from\u00a0a\u00a034-27\u00a0halftime lead\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0University of Illinois Chicago\u00a0on\u00a0Friday\u00a0night.\u00a0 The Hoosiers, who\u00a0shot\u00a010 for 32 from the field\u00a0and\u00a02 for 11 from\u00a03-point\u00a0range\u00a0in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-270326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}