The game everyone anticipated has come to its inevitable end. And it ended the way Hoosier fans had feared.
Indiana fell to the No. 7 Maryland Terrapins 82-69 at College Park on Sunday. Officially over halfway through the season, the Hoosiers now sit at 11-5 overall and remain without a victory at 0-4 in Big Ten play.
“We’re disappointed,” head coach Teri Moren said after the game. “We are coming up on the short end of a lot of these games right now. The last two games for us, though, we’re headed in the right direction.”
But the reason this matchup was so highly anticipated for the fans? Senior guard Yarden Garzon. The former Hoosier transferred heading into the 2025-26 season to Maryland. Garzon was Indiana’s leading scorer just last season (14.4 points per game), and has averaged 13.1 points per game through the New Year. Despite the victory against her former team, Garzon only scored 8 points on 3-for-9 shooting splits.
When asked if Garzon’s presence was on the Hoosiers’ minds or if they were simply focused on playing the Terrapins, Indiana sophomore Lenée Beaumont said, “it’s the second one for sure.”
“No matter who’s on the floor, we’re gonna scout them, we’re gonna get a gameplan for them…you just gotta go out there and play,” Beaumont said.
Beaumont finished the game with 11 points. She struggled with ball security, leading the game in turnovers (five), but played crucial minutes throughout, only sitting for two minutes.
Despite the score, Indiana played a strong game offensively, shooting incredibly efficiently from the field and beyond-the-arc. One problem. They barely shot the ball. Indiana was uber efficient, but shot the ball just 49 times compared to Maryland’s 63 attempts.
Maryland’s relentless pressure forced 21 IU turnovers leading to 25 points off turnovers for the Terps.
“A lot of those turnovers were turnovers that we were doing to ourselves,” Beaumont said. “Nothing that they were doing was really anything special. We just gotta be smarter with the ball.”
The most notable return for the team was Zania Socka-Nguemen joining the lineup for the first time since Nov. 28. Socks-Nguemen only played 17 minutes in the contest, and struggled to fight off some rust. She tallied four points and three rebounds while finding herself in foul trouble early — four fouls before halftime — and three turnovers. But her presence back on the court speaks volumes.
“We’ve missed her,” Moren said. “It’s hard to run a good offense without a post presence. It’s been a long five weeks for us…for her to feel like, today, she could get in and get some minutes is really big for us.”
Garzon’s teammate, Oluchi Okananwa, was the killer, with 34 points on an incredible 54.5% from the field and 42.9% from 3. Okananwa was impeccable, forcing multiple turnovers, capitalizing in transition, and knocking down her shots. Yet she was one of two Terrapins with double-digit scoring performances. Indiana had four.
The leader? Maya Makalusky. Her 20-point performance (with six coming from long distance) helped keep the score closer than it could have been. This was her second 20-point game of the season as she continues to feel more comfortable and emerge as a weapon on this young Indiana squad.
And while Indiana shot the ball well, only three Hoosiers even attempted a 3-pointer. And all three of them knocked at least one down.
Just four points from Indiana’s bench, and all four came from Socka-Nguemen. In their defense, four of Indiana’s five starters played 34 minutes or more. But with a combined 33 bench minutes played, the Hoosiers saw very little offensive production from their reserves.
Costly turnovers and early foul trouble are likely going to continue to be a major focal point for this Indiana team. But with Socka-Nguemen back, Makalusky catching fire and Beaumont and Shay Ciezki’s offensive firepower, there’s a lot to be hopeful about for a potential second-half turnaround.
Indiana remains on the road for another Big Ten showdown in Lincoln, Nebraska for a matchup against the Cornhuskers on Thursday, Jan. 8.
