Yarden Garzon scores 35 points, surpasses 1,000 career points in IU’s win at Washington

Indiana women’s basketball’s three-game losing skid is over.

Junior guard Yarden Garzon poured in a career-high 35 points as the Hoosiers held off a late rally in a 73-70 win against Washington Monday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Garzon shot 13-for-18 from the field, including an 8-for-10 mark from 3-point range, in 36 minutes. She surpassed the 1,000-point plateau for her career, becoming the 33rd player in program history to do so.

“It felt amazing just to see the ball through the net again and again,” Garzon said postgame.

The 35 points by Garzon were the most in a game by an IU player since Amanda Cahill scored 38 in a quadruple-overtime win against Michigan State in the 2018 Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

The Hoosiers led by as many as nine in the first half but went cold in the second quarter, which allowed the Huskies to claim a 31-29 halftime lead.

Garzon’s 3-pointer at the 3:11 mark of the second quarter gave Indiana a 29-25 lead. But the Hoosiers went scoreless for the remainder of the half. Indiana committed nine of its 17 turnovers in the second quarter.

“That second quarter was a terrible quarter for us,” Teri Moren said. “We just have to be so much better at valuing the ball and taking care of it. I think they had 17 or 18 shots in the second quarter to our eight.”

After refocusing at the break, Indiana again threatened to pull away from Washington in the third quarter. The Hoosiers opened up an 11-point lead on a 3-pointer by Garzon at the 4:40 mark, which made the score 49-38.

By the end of the third frame, Indiana had its largest lead at 59-46 after a Sydney Parrish layup just before the buzzer. The Hoosiers scored 30 points in the third quarter on 10-for-12 shooting, including a 6-for-8 mark from distance.

The fourth quarter began promisingly, as the Hoosiers pushed the lead to 14 points, 62-48, on a Garzon triple with 8:56 remaining.

The Huskies, however, didn’t go away quietly.

Washington got within three at 62-59 on a Chloe Biggs 3-pointer with 5:36 left, prompting Moren to use a timeout just 11 seconds later.

Indiana extended the lead back to seven, at 66-59, on a 3-point play by Garzon with 4:31 left, but the Huskies scored seven unanswered points to tie the game at 66 with 2:51 left.

With the score knotted at 68 on an Elle Ladine layup with 1:46 left, Parrish answered with a crucial 3-pointer to give IU a 71-68 cushion with 1:25 to play.

Washington got within one just 15 seconds later off a pair of free throws from Sayvia Sellers, but Garzon’s jumper with 53 seconds left pushed the IU lead back to three. Neither team scored the rest of the way as IU won for the first time in more than two weeks.

“I liked how our kids responded,” Moren said. “Hit timely shots, big-time shots. Both Yarden and Syd, so I was happy for those guys. I’m happy for the entire team, though, because this has been a long road trip for us. Super disappointed we couldn’t pull it off at Oregon, just didn’t play well enough. So we felt like we needed this one tonight to get back on track.”

Parrish finished with 16 points, which included a 4-for-6 performance on 3-pointers. The fifth-year senior also grabbed a team-high six rebounds in 34 minutes.

The win improved Indiana to 14-7 overall and 5-4 in the Big Ten at the halfway point of the conference schedule.

The Hoosiers return home to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday to play Nebraska at noon ET on FS1.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

Category: Women's Basketball

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