The Indiana-Iowa matchup has been a heated, hotly contested one for years now in women’s basketball.

Most of the juice came from the two programs having peaks right around the same time, Iowa with Caitlin Clark and Indiana reaching its apex under Teri Moren. That trend continued to a degree on Sunday and, for the first time since 2021, the Hoosiers took down the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.

It was an exciting one but it wasn’t without its faults. Here’s three things:

Yarden Garzon

Whatever I write here will not do justice to the way Yarden Garzon played today.

It was astounding. A truly incredible display of basketball from a special player who’s emerged as something of the Hoosiers’ go-to option in her junior year.

Garzon has always been excellent, especially as a shooter, but going a perfect 5-5 from deep is something special before you consider she could’ve been 6-6 if her final 3-pointer of the contest hadn’t been waved off due to a foul.

She only took three other shots on the night, one of which was a contested fadeaway in the midrange late in the shot clock that went in and added onto the Hoosiers’ lead when they needed points.

When Garzon is playing like that, she’s one of the best players in the Big Ten. She’s too big for most guards and has a level of finesse that most bigs just do not possess. Indiana’s going to need more of this version of her this season.

Chloe Moore-McNeil and Syndey Parrish

Indiana’s most important contributions came from the trio of Chloe Moore-McNeil, Sydney Parrish and Garzon.

I’m putting Moore-McNeil and Parrish together because they’re the Hoosiers’ senior leaders, the kind you look to when things get rough and depend on during those rough patches.

Moren can only do so much from the sideline to control a game, so she’s definitely glad to have someone like Moore-McNeil running the show. She’s entering her third year as a starter and showcased what makes her among the top players in the Big Ten against Iowa.

Moore-McNeil finished with a stellar 18 points, but did an incredible job of keeping the game under control throughout. The Hoosiers had a few turnover woes throughout that kept this relatively close, but Moore-McNeil herself had just one.

She did a tremendous job getting the ball where it needed to go and taking it upon herself to score points. When Indiana needed to make a play off the bounce, Moore-McNeil was there to make it happen.

Parrish was her usual self, hustling on both ends of the floor, but she helped just about shut down Hawkeyes star forward Hannah Stuelke, who finished with just 5 points on 1-6 shooting from the field.

Add in her 15 points and you have a winning recipe for the Hoosiers.

Controlling the game

Indiana jumped on Iowa early, opening up a lead the Hoosiers just never relinquished.

The Hoosiers spent nearly all of the game with the lead barring a short 44 seconds when the Hawkeyes had everything tied up. Despite its efforts, Iowa didn’t hold the lead all game. In Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Indiana did a tremendous job scoring to add onto its lead and standing firm to hold off any Iowa surges. The Hawkeyes are a team that can score in bunches and the Hoosiers held their top two scorers, Lucy Olsen and Stuelke, to single-digit points

It was a complete team effort and exemplary performance all around.