BLOOMINGTON -- The Indiana women's basketball team attempted to make a second-half comeback in a 68-54 loss to Illinois on Thursday night without starters Yarden Garzon and Lilly Meister on the floor.
The Hoosiers (12-5; 4-2 Big Ten) gave up 25 points in the first quarter and fell behind by 15 points in the first half as the Illini got off to a scorching hot start.
Indiana cut that deficit to four points in the fourth while coach Teri Moren kept the same lineup on the floor for nearly 14 minutes, but Garzon and Meister weren't a part of it. They stayed on the bench for the entire fourth quarter and combined for just seven minutes in the second half.
"They are not injured," Moren said, when asked about their status. "They're fully healthy."
Garzon, who came into the game leading IU in scoring with 14.6 points per game and was coming off a signature performance against Iowa, tied a season-low with just 20 minutes. She's only played fewer minutes four times in her career and three of those games came in the opening weeks of the 2022-23 season when she was just a true freshman.
Her lone points in the loss came on a made 3-pointer on IU's opening possession.
Moren said Garzon simply couldn't keep up with Illinois guard Adalia McKenzie, who scored 11 of her 15 points while going 5 of 5 with Garzon guarding her in the first quarter. She checked out for good after turning it over with 5:52 to go in the third.
"We had to get stops, and she had a time guarding and No. 24 went right at her, so we had to get a more athletic lineup on the floor just to try to do a better job defensively," Moren said.
Indiana played with three-guard lineup down the stretch that featured Chloe Moore-McNeil, Shay Ciezki and Lexus Bargesser along with Sydney Parrish and Karoline Striplin. Meister and Striplin have worked in concert to replace the production IU got in the post from Mackenzie Holmes.
Meister has started every game and is averaging more minutes this season (22.1) than Striplin (15.3), but she's struggled of late with 6.3 points and 3.3 rebounds over the team's last three games.
"Lilly has to better," Moren said, after the game. "She has to be better offensively and has to be better defensively. Here as of late, she's just been OK, we don't need an OK Lilly, we need a really good Lilly to help us cause we have to have great balance. Just not a good matchup with (Kendall) Bostic."
It was the kind of performance Moren worried about when she criticized both her bigs after a near-loss to Southern Indiana earlier this season. Bostic led all scorers with 21 points on 9 of 19 shooting and had eight rebounds while playing the full 40 minutes.
"I was disappointed in our post play," Moren said. "I thought Lilly and Strip were just okay offensively, defensively. I think about some of the post players that we're going to see in the Big Ten, right ... we're going to play against some of the best post players in the country, and we've got to be able to respond much better, and we got to help them as a staff."
Meister will have to rebound quickly as IU gets set to host a talented USC team on Sunday that features senior forward Kiki Iriafen. Iriafen beat up on the Hoosiers while playing with Stanford last season -- she had 20 points (9 of 12) and 11 rebounds in a 96-64 win -- and is now one of the best post players in the Big Ten.
The 6-foot-3 forward is averaging 18.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game this season.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.