Indiana women's basketball's game against No. 13 Stanford on Sunday was a game of matchups. It was IU's four-guard offense against Stanford's lengthy, two-center offense.

And the Cardinal's oversized offensive game prevailed, as Stanford had no problem with No. 9 IU, 96-64, at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto.

The 32-point loss was head coach Teri Moren's third-worst loss in her IU tenure. IU lost by 54 points to Ohio State in 2015 and by 36 points to Maryland in 2017.

More: Blowout loss at Stanford a wake-up call. How will Hoosiers react?

"Really, it was a good, old-fashioned butt-kicking," Moren said postgame. "That's what it looked like. Stanford was terrific."

The Hoosiers (1-1) have a four-day break before hosting Murray State on Friday.

Here are three observations from the Hoosiers' tough loss:

Defense optional for Hoosiers

Stanford had its way, both inside and out, on offense in the first half. It was a free-for-all beyond the arc — the Cardinal shot 10-for-24 (a 42% clip) just in the first half, and 50% from the field (27-of-54).

"They got off to a hot start," Moren said. "Even some of those kids that were coming off the bench, they were taking deep threes, and it seemed like they couldn't miss. Those are back-breakers."

The Cardinal's success also came in a spot where Moren knew her Hoosiers were struggling: straight line drives. IU struggled in that aspect against D-II Northwood in the exhibition and early in the season-opener against Eastern Illinois.

Against a top-15 opponent, the Hoosier's defensive woes reared its ugly head.

Stanford blew past IU's defense multiple times in the first and second half, putting up easy layups. The Hoosiers especially struggled to contain Stanford standout and presumed first-round WNBA pick Cameron Brink, who kept her composure in the paint to score 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

Stanford finished the game shooting 50% from the field, including 37% from beyond the arc.

IU's defensive struggles early led to an out-of-rhythm offense, further putting the Hoosiers in the hole throughout the game.

Becoming desperate for a shot to fall, IU made just five 3-pointers out of 32 attempts throughout the game. The Hoosiers, who also shot just 34% from the field, were blocked six times by the Cardinal — including four times by Brink herself.

"We're not a team that needs to be taking 32 threes," Moren said. "And that's my fault. We tried to get some energy behind the ball with our motion offense, and we shouldn't have just settled for threes."

Cardinal dominate glass

Speaking of defense, one of the keys to make sure this game didn't get out of hand was controlling the glass.

The Cardinal's tall frontcourt — Brink stands at 6-4, and power forward Kiki Iriafen is 6-3 — lends Stanford to a great proficiency on the offensive glass. IU needed to take away any second-chance possessions from the Cardinal's long offense, which can be lethal.

"Cameron and Kiki post so hard, and they force you to have to bring help from somewhere," Moren said. "We brought it in two different ways, but their willingness to either spin out of it and still get offensive putbacks and whatnot, and then hitting those outside shots, I thought that really hurt us."

Instead, the Cardinal dominated the rebounding game with a +23 advantage on the glass. Stanford also grabbed 18 offensive rebounds compared to the Hoosiers' nine, leading to 20 second-chance points for the Cardinal.

Brink led the Cardinal on the rebounding front, grabbing 17. Iriafen also finished in double-digit rebounding with 11.

"We've got to be better, a lot better playing two big posts like Kiki and Cam," senior guard Sydney Parrish said. "And that's on me and Mackenzie to start the game."

Despite struggles, Mackenzie Holmes makes milestone

Coming into the game against Stanford, Mackenzie Holmes needed just two points to become the second all-time leading scorer in program history.

And she had to wait until the second half to achieve that milestone.

Stanford, which had Holmes circled on its scout sheet, had an effective plan to guard her in the first half, using a combination of Brink and Brooke Demetre in the post. Collectively, Stanford held Holmes to zero points, rebounds or assists in the first half. The preseason All-American only took four shots and had two of them blocked.

"Mack, she just a little sped up," Moren said. "Would we have liked her to play better? No doubt. She was bringing in the double, and she got a little bit excited in there as well."

Holmes had better fortunes in the second half though, scoring the Hoosiers' first points of the half to finally pass Denise Jackson (1,917 points) to become the Hoosiers' second all-time leading scorer. She got her first two rebounds not soon after.

The Cardinal's game plan ultimately worked, though, as Holmes finished the game with eight points — the first time she has been held under 10 points since Feb. 2022.

"There's a number of shots that she missed that she could have gotten on the board, but Mack will be better," Moren said. "She's disappointed, just like we all are. We're not happy in that locker room in terms of the display today, but we've got to learn from it and move on."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women's basketball blown out on road by Stanford in top 15 matchup