BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2026

Teri Moren

Lenée Beaumont

Shay Ciezki

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Indiana Hoosiers

Postgame Press Conference

Indiana - 72, Nebraska - 69

THE MODERATOR: We have Indiana Coach Teri Moren and student-athletes Shay Ciezki and Lenée Beaumont. Coach, if you would make an opening statement.

TERI MOREN: First of all, Nebraska is an excellent team. Amy and her staff do an unbelievable job, and they are hard to prepare for. They're hard to play against.

This afternoon I just thought it was a tale of two halves. They were frickin' on fire in that first quarter. But I thought we could get to halftime and -- you know, as I said to our group, I just felt like we were trying to play a little bit individually a little too much.

I thought, if we could just come together, stay connected, share the ball more in the second half, it was a matter of time before we felt like Nebraska was going to cool off. We had to get some big stops.

It was great to see the way we shared the ball in the second half, the way we played fast in the second half. I thought that was really important to us being able to chip away at the deficit.

So really, really proud of Shay and the way she handled herself out there and her supporting cast, Beau. All year we've really leaned on these two. So proud of, not just the way that they helped get the lead, secure it, win it, but just how they handled themselves, particularly in the second half.

Q. Coach Moren said it was a tale of two halves. That's something you could kind of have said for different points throughout the season, except the result would be the opposite early on. In the last month and now into today, that has completely changed. This is a completely different looking ball team. When you get on the court in that second half down by a bunch, what's going through your heads to swing the tide and get back into this game?

SHAY CIEZKI: I'm a firm believer in you can't succeed until you fail, and I think that we hit a rough stretch in the beginning of the Big Ten play. Obviously being 0-10, that's not how you want to start it, but I truly believe that those losses led us to win this game today.

I think that we had a lot of talks in huddles at halftime just saying how much we want it and how much we worked for this, for this game. I don't think a team's hungrier than a team trying to get in the tournament, and that's what we're playing for right now. We're just trying to stack wins as much as we can.

Everyone did their part today, and it was just a great group effort.

LENÉE BEAUMONT: Absolutely. Early on in the season, if we were down 20, the response probably would have been a little bit different than it was today. As disappointing as those losses were early on, like she said, it helped us get to the point where we are today.

Then at halftime, you're looking at each other, you're looking at your seniors, and you're like there's nothing more you would do for another day with them. If that's not enough motivation, I don't know what is.

Q. This question is for Shay. It seemed like the pace of the game definitely picked up big for you guys in the second half. Was that like a point of emphasis in that halftime conversation, or was that something you just kind of feel evolved as the half was going on?

SHAY CIEZKI: It's a point of emphasis every quarter. Every media timeout, every dead ball, it's something that we pride ourselves on. That's how we get momentum as a team, by playing fast, by running, by pushing. You know, that's only when we get stops, and that's when we get rebounds.

The first half of it was tough. They were shooting -- I mean, in the first quarter, 68 percent. It's hard to get out and run when that team is shooting so good from the outside.

But our defense picked up, and that's how we got out and ran.

Q. Lenée, your go-ahead shot, if you could tell us a little bit about that, but leading up to that, it was coming and coming and coming and you guys were trimming and trimming and trimming, and it stayed just a little bit out of reach. What were you thinking about that? Are you going to run out of time? Or we've still got plenty of time?

LENÉE BEAUMONT: Honestly in the fourth, Shay kept saying spurts. We laugh about it now, but there was no other option other than to keep chipping away until that buzzer sounded off.

Ali Patberg, my position coach, that was something we worked on all year. If I miss two in a row, I can't go in and be a shell of myself. I've got to be able to still look for my shot and think shot first. If we're going to lose, I'm going to go down swinging. That kind of was my mentality in the fourth.

Q. In a tale of two halves, you guys shot 38 percent in the first half, but 67 percent in the second half. Was it open looks, complementary basketball? How were you able to make that adjustment and come away with the win?

SHAY CIEZKI: We were sharing the ball. I think first half personally I was pressing a little bit. I think all of us, Coach was saying that we were trying to play hero ball at half, and she was so right.

We were able to share the ball, move the ball, get Nebraska in rotations, and that's how you'll be able to get open shots.

Beau's two threes were open looks just because we were moving the ball well. We were trusting each other. It was just -- like you said, two different halves. So we've just got to make sure that with Ohio State that we're playing together all 40 minutes.

Q. Coach, can you speak about how Maya and Edessa played today, especially in that second half?

TERI MOREN: Yeah, I'd love to talk about how Edessa -- that's the first time I think all year she's had to play 40 minutes. She has really come along in a really, really good way for us in the last couple months. After we lost Z to injury, she got the nod.

We've worked every day with her in terms of how she can help us and how she has helped us and will help us as we move on, and she's really embraced the challenge that we've given her.

She's a kid that has a high IQ. She was very spirited tonight, or this afternoon, the most I've seen her in terms of how she was really trying to rally the troops, especially in that first quarter or the first half. So really, really pleased with how she played today.

Then Maya continues to be a freshman that, again, has made great strides for us. She and Edessa and throw Nevaeh in there have really taken some added pressure off of Shay. We really rely on Shay from a scoring perspective.

I think with Edessa being more aggressive, with Maya being more aggressive, they've really helped take some of that pressure off of Shay. Pleased with both of them today.

Q. I thought one of the biggest things in this game was you guys attacked the paint in the second half. Nebraska owned the first half in the paint and rebounds. Talk a little bit about how your team focused more on let's take it to the paint.

TERI MOREN: Yeah, by the end of the game we could do that. Just got off to a really bad start from a defensive perspective. They were getting a lot of easy looks at the rim. We just weren't locked in the way we needed to be.

Again, we got them to halftime and tried to just remind them of how we were going to get back in the game, how we were going to win the game, and what needed to happen.

Shay talked a little bit about us playing fast in transition and trying to get to the rim as much as we could. But part of that is you've got to be willing to share the ball. In the first half we weren't. We didn't share the ball near as well, as good as we needed to do, as we did in the second half.

Give those kids credit, right? It would have been really easy for us to walk out and just say it wasn't going to be our day, but they had that fighting spirit. So really, really proud of how they -- like I said, how they did their work, how they got back into the game, and obviously how we were able to win it.

Q. Teri, congrats on the win. You got a quick turnaround tomorrow. What are the steps that you need to take going in from today leading into tomorrow? And into tomorrow, what are the steps you're going to need to continue to put forward?

TERI MOREN: We've got to get back, and we've got to get some rest for sure. We know the thing with Ohio State and what a terrific team they are, the press is going to be something that we're going to have to face. For us, I do feel like -- it's funny how this tournament works sometimes. We've been in the double bye. We've been the single bye. Sometimes we've been -- haven't been in maybe once in our 12 seasons here.

I do think there's an advantage to getting on the floor first and feeling -- I do think our kids will feel a little more relaxed tomorrow. There was a lot riding on this game, but I just feel like in all of these tournaments, that first game, when you can get into the game and you can get your feet wet, I think that -- I'm hopeful that we will look a lot different in terms of -- I thought we looked shellshocked in the first half, right? I'm hopeful that we'll look way more relaxed.

Again, Ohio State's had an unbelievable year. Kevin and his staff do a great job. We know it's going to be a tall task. I think at their place it was competitive, especially in the first half, but the key to the game will be keeping those turnovers low against that pressure defense in the full court and in the half.