What Teri Moren Said After Indiana's 71-54 Win Over Maryland on Senior Day

Indiana cruised to a 71-54 win over Maryland on Sunday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Sara Scalia led the Hoosiers with 19 points, followed by 17 from Yarden Garzon. Here's everything coach Teri Moren said after the senior day victory.

Opening statement

Moren: "Well, this is always a bittersweet day when we have senior day and we have an opponent like Maryland that's coming in and your focus certainly wants to be on the task at hand, but you also reflect on your seniors and what they've meant. You try to keep the main thing the main thing, and I thought we got off to a good start, particularly in the first half. I thought in the second half, what I liked about our play, I thought Chloe, after Mack went out and it didn't seem like we could generate – Maryland's a hard team because they switch everything, they go back and forth with the zone, they're big – we couldn't get any rhythm offensively, but I loved how Chloe just sort of took over in the moment and tried to get to the rim and tried to get to the free throw line. And I thought she was a big reason why we were able to keep the lead, maintain the lead, and then we just had to go to our bench and move some pieces around and try to get to the finish line. So on a day where it's special for the seniors, kind of different in terms of how it ended with some injuries and whatnot, I was proud of how we finished."

On injuries to Mackenzie Holmes and Lilly Meister...

Moren: "Yeah, not right now. I think they both – as far as I've been told, I just came from the locker room and got to speak with our medical team – both are going to be evaluated right now, day-to-day as far as where they're at. Hopefully tomorrow they'll both wake up feeling better, but as of right now it's just going to be day-to-day and the evaluation is going to be ongoing right now. There's some festivities right now with seniors and Mack, especially, so I think they're allowing her some time with her family to do that before we know anymore."

On if Moren thought of Holmes' injury history when it happened...

Moren: Sure, yeah, she certainly has had some bad luck, especially in late February. But we're going to be hopeful and optimistic that it'll turn out the way we want it to. Mack's a very, very resilient, tough kid as we know, and we have great medical people, medical staff, that will do everything they can for both she and Lilly to make sure that if they're available for the Big Ten Tournament, they'll be available.

On Chloe Moore-McNeil returning next season...

Moren: "The thing I love about Chloe is Chloe wanted to get that out because she knew today was going to be about our seniors and how she did it is in Chloe fashion. No graphic, just a few words in a tweet, so I think we would all agree that she's been so instrumental the last couple seasons for us, the way she's grown into becoming one of the best Big Ten guards has been really special. It's been because of her work, and I think we're all super excited, I know I am, that we get to coach her another season." 

On limiting Shyanne Sellers to 3-for-13 shooting...

Moren: Well, Shyanne's not the only one that's physical. That's a physical team. We knew that when we went to Maryland months ago, or whenever that was in January and played them there. It was a very physical game. We didn't do anything extraordinary. We tried to do our best to keep them in front of us. Tried to have activity around the ball, and I thought, again, we knew our will was going to have to be greater today than theirs, just because they're not finesse. They're all about trying to out physical you. Again, really proud of our kids for the way they battled and fought because that's what it was there at times."

On reaction to Holmes' injury and how she moved forward as a coach...

Moren: "Well again, it's trying to – we had to get her out, and then she goes and spends some time and Ben came out and said we weren't going to have her for the rest of the game. So you try like crazy to not let your mind go anywhere it shouldn't in that moment. Your job as a coach is to make sure that you focus on the kids that are out there on the floor, so that's what I tried to do. Again, I don't know right now. Emotionally, I just don't know. I'm going to be optimistic until they tell me differently, but no, I went into coach gear and we were just trying to get the pieces out there. When Lilly went down, we knew that we had to play small. We moved Yarden to the five, which the luxury of having her has been important because we can move her around. But I think we all went into just coaching mode over there and really just focused on those kids that were on the floor."

On preparing for Big Ten and NCAA Tournament with injury uncertainty...

Moren: "Well, I think we'll have a better idea as we go into the week, who's going to be available for the Big Ten Tournament. The great thing is we have some time here. We've got the double-bye, so we're not playing until Friday. So we do have some good time here. But the bigger picture also is the NCAA Tournament, so we have a lot to think about, certainly the Big Ten Tournament, but beyond that, as well."

On getting team ready for postseason play and back-to-back games...

Moren: "Well I think we've tried to do that as we've gone down the stretch here, tried to manage playing every two days. It seems like we've had a lot of those. I feel like we've only had one bye, meaning we've only had a five-day or four-day, like an extended period of time off. I feel like we've always been prepping every two days, and we have an experienced group, so I feel like from a coaching perspective you feel very confident. Your practices aren't as long. We're going about a solid [hour] to 75 minutes, that's what we've been doing as of late. You certainly think about wanting to go in with fresh bodies, fresh minds, fresh legs, so we've really tapered back a lot going down the stretch here in terms of their time, managing it and so forth. So we won't do anything differently. I think what we've done has worked for us."

On Arielle Wisne's block...

Moren: "Well, she's been so special. She is the greatest teammate, and I can't overstate it enough. And let's go back from the block, how about the national anthem that she crushed? That was a nice surprise. I don't think our players, her teammates, didn't know that she was going to do that. She's such a beautiful person inside and out. To put her on the floor and have her do something positive like that was great. You could sense and tell the excitement from her teammates. Just by how they reacted, you know how much she means to them, so very cool."

On what specific injuries Holmes and Meister are dealing with...

Moren: "Mack's is her knee, and Lilly's is an ankle."

On scouting opponents for a tournament setting...

Moren: "It's preparing for two teams. This league has been really good, and anything can happen in tournament play. If they do what we do, it's a whole new season, it's a whole new opportunity for every team. So you find out tonight the possibility of who you may play, and we will prep for two teams."

On if she's concerned that the NCAA Tournament committee could move Indiana down a seed line if Holmes doesn't play in the Big Ten Tournament...

Moren: "Well, I'm not on the committee. If I was, I may feel differently. Those things are out of your control. The only thing you can do is control the things that we can control. And if they have us here, great for Hoosier nation. If they tell us we need to go on the road, we'll do that.