The injury bug hasn’t been kind to Indiana this season. Phoenix Stotijn, Zania Socka-Nguemen and Faith Wiseman have all missed time this year. All of these seem like minor blows after Shay Ciezki got hurt in warm ups before Indiana’s matchup with USC on Thursday.
Ciezki, who is the Big Ten’s leading scorer, rolled her ankle in shootaround and got listed as questionable before being ruled out shortly before the game started.
Without Ciezki, not many gave the Hoosiers a chance on the road against the heavily favored Trojans. Even with Ciezki this was going to be a difficult game in a hostile environment with a 10 p.m. tip time for the traveling Hoosiers.
While Indiana would fall 79-73 on the road, snapping their three-game win streak, it might have been the Hoosiers’ most impressive game of the year. The loss moves Indiana to 14-12 and 3-11 in conference play but the Hoosiers have nothing but optimism headed forward after the impressive road showing.
Almost every starter ended the game in double figures with the lone starter in single digits, Jerni Kiaku, finishing with nine points in a shortened game due to fouling out. Kiaku was one of three Hoosiers who fouled out in the contest, joining Edessa Noyan and Stotijn.
The fouls were the big story of the night as Indiana was called for 25 fouls compared to the Trojans’ 16 as well as shooting 18 free throws to USC’s 35.
Indiana outshot USC from the field and from downtown but the Hoosiers’ 19 turnovers combined with USC making 13 more free throws was too much for the Hoosiers to overcome in the end.
Despite this, Indiana refused to go away as they continued to throw punches back and forth after USC would seemingly knock out the Hoosiers.
This was in large part due to a star performance from Maya Makalusky who played a full 40 minute shift en route to dropping 29 points with five triples.
It was Makalusky’s fourth 20-point game of the season and a new career high for the 2025 Indiana Miss Basketball. Nevaeh Caffey and Noyan also added in impressive showings with 11 and 12 points, respectively.
Performances like this show just how much this young Indiana team has grown this season and give Hoosier fans hope for the future since Indiana only has two seniors in Ciezki and Kiaku.
Up next for the Hoosiers is their toughest test yet as they take on the one-loss and second-ranked UCLA Bruins as they wrap up their road trip before returning home to Bloomington.
While the matchup versus the Bruins will be an uphill battle, Indiana closes out the year with very winnable games against Oregon, Rutgers and Penn State which will all be huge games as Indiana currently sits as the last team in the field of the 2026 Big Ten women’s basketball tournament.
