BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana women’s basketball team has another sharpshooter on its hands.
After losing Sara Scalia, the program’s single-season 3-point record-holder, head coach Teri Moren went into the transfer portal looking for another strong shooter beyond the arc. Scalia was an All-Big Ten first-teamer who made 103 3-pointers in her final season as a Hoosier and finished her career shooting 39.5% from beyond the arc.
But Moren was determined. She found another 3-point maestro in Shay Ciezki, who came to Indiana from conference rival Penn State. Ciezki, a Buffalo, New York, native was a full-time starter with the Nittany Lions, making 59 starts over two years. Ciezki led Penn State with 74 3-pointers on 36.8% shooting in her sophomore season.
As an incoming junior, her talent easily transferred to Bloomington.
Ciezki won the Hoosier Hysteria women’s 3-point contest on Friday night, prevailing over two rounds. She made eight straight 3-pointers in the first round, as well as an intentional buzzer-beater, to make 17 of her 25 shots.
Going up against Sydney Parrish in the final round, Ciezki made 17 3-pointers again, barely beating out Parrish’s 16.
Suffice it to say, Indiana’s 3-point shooting will be just fine.
“I’m so excited to be a part of this team, and I know the sky’s the limit,” Ciezki told Parrish in an interview following her 3-point contest win. “… The goal is a Big Ten championship.”
A Big Ten title will be even more difficult in the new-look Big Ten, which includes No. 3 USC and No. 5 UCLA. Indiana, which went 26-6 last year, had some rebuilding to do after losing Scalia, along with five-year center and program leading scorer Mackenzie Holmes.
But Moren always instills a culture of excellence, and that hasn’t changed this year. With both key losses and key additions, Indiana came in at No. 25 in the Associated Press preseason rankings.
“We never put a number on how many games we want to win, because I don’t want to limit this group,” Moren said in an interview with Hoosier Hysteria emcee Tricia Whitaker. “I think there’s so much great potential that we have. Each year we go into it and just take it one game at a time, but I can tell you that this group is hungry. Last year we had a bitter defeat (in the Sweet 16) over the national championship team in South Carolina, we haven’t forgot about it, but it serves as motivation for us every day, and it’s inspiration for us to get up the next day and get a little bit better.”
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Hoosier Hysteria was IU fans’ first look at Ciezki, fellow transfer from Tennessee Karoline Striplin, and freshmen Sydney Fenn and Faith Wiseman. They came in droves to see the newcomers, the returners for both the men’s and women’s team.
IU fan support was evident in the 2023-24 season, as the Hoosiers averaged more than 10,000 fans a game for just the fifth time in Big Ten women’s basketball history. Hometown fans never saw a loss in Assembly Hall, as Indiana went 17-0 at home — including a win over then-No. 4 Iowa.
This season, IU has multiple marquee games in Assembly Hall. UCLA comes to Bloomington on Jan. 4, and USC on Jan. 12. Moren doesn’t want just those games filled to the brim; she wants every game to be filled to the rafters in 2024-25.
“This has become one of the most difficult places in the country to play (because of the fans),” Moren said. “But I will say this. Here’s my goal for us: I want to see those rafters filled every single night, because I believe this team is going to be special, this program is going to be special. The popularity of women’s basketball across the country right now, what better state that has the best fans, I just said it. There’s no reason we can’t get this place filled every night.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women’s basketball: Shay Ciezki another Hoosiers sharpshooter
