Purdue women's basketball's Senior Day festivities were dampened by another defeat in the Barn Burner Trophy game, as the Boilermakers fell to Indiana 77-57 in Mackey Arena on Sunday afternoon. It was the 13th straight defeat for Purdue at the hands of their arch in-state rivals, dating back to January 2019.
The loss also takes Purdue out of contention for next week's Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, finishing in the bottom three of the conference. With postseason play highly unlikely, Purdue now finishes the 2024-25 campaign at 10-19 and 3-15 in Big Ten play. Those marks are the worst for the program since 2020-21 (7-16 overall record) and 2014-15 (3-15 conference record).
Purdue began the afternoon on a blazing start, as McKenna Layden and Destini Lombard both knocked down triples in the opening 90 seconds. That gave the Boilermakers a 6-2 lead, but the Hoosiers would respond swiftly with an extended run. Shay Ciezki and Yarden Garzon teamed up to take Indiana on a 10-0 run before Reagan Bass snapped the four minute scoreless stretch for the Boilermakers.
Chloe Moore-McNeil then got in on the action with back-to-back buckets, followed by a pair of Ciezki free throws, and capped off by two Sydney Parrish threes to push the deficit to 16 for the Boilermakers. During the extended run, Purdue made only one field goal in the final 8:24 of the opening frame.
The second run of 10+ points in the opening ten minutes helped the Hoosiers take a 24-9 lead into the second quarter after shooting 64% from the field and hitting four threes, compared to a 25% clip from the field for Purdue.
The Boilermakers started chipping away at the then 17-point Indiana lead to start the second quarter behind Lana McCarthy. The freshman forward had six points in five minutes while being featured heavily in the offense, while Sophie Swanson cashed in on a step back triple, to bring Purdue within ten at the 4:42 mark.
After McCarthy got another layup to fall and added a free throw to her tally, cutting the deficit to nine, Indiana's Parrish and Ciezki helped kickstart a charge for the Hoosiers. Indiana outscored the Boilermakers 9-3 over the final 2:45 of the half to get the lead back to 15 heading into the break.
Purdue was held to just 27% shooting from the field in the first half and 3-10 from three-point range, while Indiana was 53% from the field. Lana McCarthy paced the Boilermakers with nine points and six rebounds in the half. Shay Ciezki and Sydney Parrish had 11 and 12 points, respectively, serving as the catalysts for the sizable lead at halftime.
After five minutes of back-and-forth play, Indiana extended its lead to a game-high 19 at the 5:35 mark of the third quarter and looked to be running away with the easy victory. The Boilermakers then mounted a brief run to put the Hoosiers on their heels, as Sophie Swanson kickstarted a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to ten with 4:07 to play in the quarter.
That charge was halted by yet another lengthy run from Indiana. Ciezki knocked down a three to stop the bleeding that kickstarted an 11-2 run for the Hoosiers over the final 3:36 of the quarter, pushing the lead back to 19 heading into the final frame.
Indiana kept the Boilermakers at bay in the fourth quarter, maintaining a 20-point advantage for the remainder of the contest to walk out of Mackey Arena with another convincing victory over Purdue.
The Boilermakers were held to 37% shooting from the field and just 21% from three-point range, while the Hoosiers finished with a 53% clip from the field and 35% from deep.
Lana McCarthy paced the Boilermakers in scoring on the day, finishing with 15 points on 6-13 shooting from the field and a team-high seven rebounds. It was the second straight game in double-figures for the freshman center, doing so off the bench in both contests, after being removed from the starting lineup.
In what was their last game in Mackey Arena, the Purdue seniors of Destini Lombard, Reagan Bass, Ella Collier and Mahri Petree were only able to muster a combined 18 points between the four. Lombard and Bass had eight and six points, respectively.
On the heels of their explosive outings against Penn State earlier this week, where they combined for 61 points, Rashunda Jones and Sophie Swanson were largely held in check on Sunday afternoon. All but three of their combined 20 points came in the second half, as Swanson finished with 11 and Jones had nine, to go along with five rebounds and four assists.
The same trio that torched the Boilermakers in Bloomington last month was alive and well in West Lafayette for round two. Sydney Parrish scored a game-high 20 points on 9-12 shooting from the field, while also grabbing eight rebounds. Shay Ciezki also had 18 points for the Hoosiers, in addition to a team-high four assists. The last of the trio, Yarden Garzon, poured in an additional 15 points on 6-10 shooting and had six rebounds.
