BLOOMINGTON — There was one specific moment IU coach Teri Moren knew her Hoosiers were going to get the statement victory they desperately needed.

There were two minutes left in the game, and the Hoosiers were up by 13. The energy was palpable in Assembly Hall, and Sydney Parrish had just grabbed a defensive rebound and ran it back up the court.

Parrish was open for a shot herself but passed to Sara Scalia for a 3-pointer to go up 13 points. Assembly Hall went wild.

“Syd had it in the corner, I think, and she made that extra pass out to Sara right on the wing,” Moren said. “And you could just tell, I was like, ‘That’s the dagger right there. That’s the one that we’re gonna win the game on.’”

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One minute of game time later, Scalia made a layup to put the Hoosiers up 17, and the normally reserved guard, in her excitement, made a “too small” gesture toward the Hawkeyes, resulting in a technical foul.

Sitting in the press room after the game, Scalia smiled when she was asked about it. In the middle of the question about her emotion in the moment, Moren turned to her, laughing, and joked, “That’s right, what was that about?”

“I just was honestly having fun,” Scalia said. “That’s really it. I love playing with my teammates, I love playing with this coaching staff, and we all put in the work, and nights like tonight show all the work we put in behind the scenes. I just think it’s all about our hard work that pays off, and it’s fun when that shows.”

The Hoosiers needed this game to go well to get back on track with the expectations of its season. IU was coming off a shocking loss to a middling Illinois team, which dealt a big blow to its Big Ten title hopes and seeding in the NCAA tournament.

IU was hanging on by a thread to a hosting seed in the NCAA tournament, coming in at No. 15 overall in the committee’s first reveal of the top 16 national seeds. Following the 86-66 loss to Illinois, ESPN’s bracketology pushed Indiana down to a No. 5 seed — out of the hosting picture.

For a team that came into the season with the expectations of repeating as Big Ten champions and making a deep run in March, it was a setback.

Everybody knew — including Moren and her players — this game, IU’s final regular-season game against a top-10 opponent, was the one IU needed to win to stay in the national seeding picture.

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“Tonight, we certainly needed to have this win,” Moren said. “I try not to look too far ahead at any of that stuff, but I knew we were a part of it, but after you lose a game at Illinois, and you think, ‘Oh wow, our backs are against the wall. We’ve got to get that one on Thursday.’”

So, with the loss to Illinois still fresh in their minds, they got to work. IU held a players-only meeting following Monday's defeat, something Moren said the players do often. Then, on Tuesday, they had the best practice they’ve had all season.

Wednesday was another good practice, Moren said, and the players just had a different air about them when it came to this game.

“You could just tell there was a different feel,” Moren said. “A little bit more stoic and serious… you could tell they were going to come out and give it everything they had, and I’m not surprised by that. There might be a lot of people after they watched us on Monday play so poorly, question that, but if you’re around these guys long enough, you understand their ability to bounce back.”

IU came out and controlled the game from the start. It didn’t have a third-quarter slump — something that has been plaguing it all season — and it had the best defensive effort of its Big Ten slate so far. Most importantly, the Hoosiers beat the Hawkeyes the same way the Hawkeyes beat them. After a blowout, 84-57, loss in Iowa City in January, IU returned the favor with an 86-69 win — Iowa’s only 15-point loss this season.

IU is mathematically still in contention for the Big Ten title, but its hopes are slim. Ohio State, with a 14-1 record conference, they would need to lose two of their last three games for IU to take a share.

But IU showed Thursday night this was a different team than the sluggish one in Champaign, and different than the ones that went stagnant against Ohio State, these Hawkeyes and Stanford in earlier losses this season.

The Hoosiers found that resume win they were desperate for.

“We still have our work cut out for us,” Moren said. “But tonight, I thought it was a step in the right direction.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women's basketball beat Iowa, Caitlin Clark, back in seed mix