Coming off the loss to UCLA, Indiana bounced back and outlasted Northwestern 68-64 to give it an ugly, hard-fought Big Ten road win.
From the get go, both teams struggled to shoot the ball well, with neither team shooting over 50% for the game, IU going 22-of-56 and NU going 25-for-58.
While both sides didn't score it well for most of the game, there were still some great individual performances in this one, namely Shay Ciezki and her 20 points.
Ciezki led IU in scoring and hit a go-ahead three with less than two minutes left that was the biggest play of the night, though she wasn't the only Hoosier to play well.
Karoline Striplin had 13, Sydney Parrish had 12 and Yarden Garzon had 10 to give Indiana four double-digit scorers, though none of them did so very efficiently, which would end up being a theme for the game as a whole.
Though it wasn't a pretty performance from Indiana, it did come away with the victory, which is always a bright side, but especially in a road Big Ten game, which was exactly the case in Evanston against the Wildcats.
With all that being said, here's how it happened:
POOR SHOOTING START FROM BOTH SIDES HIGHLIGHTS 1ST HALF
Both Indiana and Northwestern got out to slow starts from the field, with missed jumpers and turnovers aplenty in what ended up being a very ugly first 20 minutes of action.
IU started out the game shooting just 6-for-16 from the field in the first half, a very poor start to things, but still held a 20-11 advantage after the first 10 minutes.
This was because three of the six made shots from the field were 3-pointers, while the Hoosiers tacked five more points from the free throw line, allowing them to close the quarter on a 10-0 run.
Northwestern shot at a similar clip, going 5-for-14 int he first quarter, but didn't put up similar scoring numbers because of the lack of threes and free throws.
While IU held a solid lead going into the second quarter, it wouldn't come out of it with one, as Northwestern closed the gap with both teams continuing to struggle putting he ball in the basket.
In the second quarter, the Hoosiers couldn't capitalize on the 10-0 run and actually allowed Northwestern to start out the quarter with an 8-0 run of their own.
This made the game close once again, especially considering IU shot at a poor mark once more, going 5-for-13 for a second straight subpar shooting period, this one even more abnormal considering IU missed all four of its 3-point attempts.
Northwestern wasn't great either, as it went 7-of-19 to give it an even worse mark than Indiana's, only closing IU's margin because of fewer turnovers and one made three compared to zero.
After all this, neither team was impressive, while neither team had a double figures scorer for the half, with Karoline Striplin and Sydney Parrish for IU, along with Melannie Daley for NU, all having nine points at the break.
Indiana took just a 31-26 lead into halftime, giving the Hoosiers an opportunity to pull away after the break but, as for the first half, neither team was all that successful.
OFFENSES DON'T IMPROVE, BUT IU SURVIVES FOR THE WIN
While Indiana did have a chance to improve upon its shooting numbers seen in the first half, it did not, though it did hold on for the win because of similar numbers out of Northwestern.
The Hoosiers and Wildcats went back and forth in the third quarter, with neither team gaining an edge, both sides scoring 15 to keep it a five point lead for IU.
In the third, Indiana shot 6-for-15, making 3-of-6 shots from deep.to keep up the lead throughout the quarter.
Northwestern once again had a poor shooting quarter as well, making just six of its 13 shots and going 1-for-5 from three, really not impressing for the third period in a row.
With both teams not taking advantage of the other side, the fourth quarter saw this one up for grabs, and it was up for grabs until the last minute as well.
Throughout the fourth, whenever Indiana made a big shot, Northwestern would respond, and it would keep responding until it took a 59-58 lead with 1:34 remaining, giving Wildcat fans real hope that they could pull off the ugly win.
Immediately after NU took the lead though, Ciezki made the biggest shot of the game, nailing a three that gave IU the 61-59 advantage, one that it wouldn't give up for the rest of the game.
This shot was huge, and it came at the perfect time, as the clutch basket Indiana had been waiting for all game came in the possession after it had given up the lead it had for the entirety of the game up to that point.
Ciezki's shot was three of her 13 in the fourth and 16 in the second half, as she was the leading scorer by far in a quarter that saw the best shooting clip of the night for IU: 5-of-12.
Northwestern also had its best percentage of the game in the fourth, going 7-of-12, but it just couldn't get over the hump against the Hoosiers.
This closed out an ugly, gritty win for the Hoosiers that might have just shown how tough it will be to win Big Ten road games moving forward.
This moves Indiana to 3-1 in Big Ten play and 11-4 overall. The Hoosiers resume play on Sunday at Iowa.
FINAL STATS
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