Riding a three game losing streak in the heart of Big Ten play, the Indiana Hoosiers were on the verge of seeing their season slip away. On Monday night in Seattle, Indiana played in a fork of the road type of game against the University of Washington.
In the fourth quarter of Monday’s contest, the Huskies went on an 11-0 run late in the quarter, while holding Indiana without any made shots for over four minutes. For an IU team desperate to tread water in the Big Ten standings, the Hoosiers simply could not afford to drop four straight.
Then, as Washington cut the deficit to 62-59 with 4:34 to go, Indiana’s Yarden Garzon answered the bell yet again for Indiana. Garzon drove baseline, and raised up for a mid-range bucket to put IU up 65-59 after the free throw.
Garzon’s crunch-time jumper was the cherry on top for a career night. In the 73-70 win, Garzon scored a career high 35 points, while going an astounding 8/10 from three.
“I think we all just said, ‘We can’t do it again. We can’t have this lead and lose it,'” junior Yarden Garzon said postgame. “We wanted to be really focused in what we are doing and execute, not just go rogue and have sloppy turnovers.”
It was this mindset that lifted Indiana after enduring their roughest patch of the season. Outside of Garzon’s career night, IU senior Sydney Parrish helped with much of the heavy lifting. Parrish, who had been battling injuries in the earlier parts of the season, totaled 16 points on 4/6 shooting from three. As a team, Indiana shot 13/23 from three, signaling a return to Indiana’s previous bread and butter.
Parrish though, with 1:30 in the fourth quarter and the game tied 68-68, Parrish caught the ball on the wing and sealed the game with a wide open triple.
“We were just desperate to win. Doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter who is good. We were just desperate to win,” Indiana guard Yarden Garzon said.
Indiana, now (13-7; 5-4 Big Ten) heads back to Bloomington for a noon matchup against Nebraska this Sunday, Feb 2.
