BLOOMINGTON — IU’s nine-day break before resuming Big Ten play Sunday gave coach Teri Moren one-on-one time with her players. Moren met with everyone to receive feedback from each player and tell them what they needed to do differently down the stretch.

Moren’s message for Chloe Moore-McNeil was clear: I need you to be more aggressive.

Moore-McNeil is a pass-first player. She’s been the lowest-scoring starter for Indiana the past two seasons, as she looks to set up teammates and shoot only when she’s open. On Sunday, IU needed more from her.

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At halftime of IU’s 77-71 win over Illinois, the Hoosiers’ leading scorer Mackenzie Holmes had 15 points. IU’s next three leading scorers on the season (Sara Scalia, Yarden Garzon and Sydney Parrish) had combined for just six points. Outside of Holmes, IU’s usual nucleus was struggling.

Fifteenth-ranked Indiana (11-1, 2-0 Big Ten) needed more than Holmes to avoid being upset by feisty Illinois (6-6, 0-2). So Moore-McNeil took Moren’s message to heart.

“Chloe, I think got the message,” Moren said. “We have to have Chloe being aggressive for us. … She has to facilitate, she has to get players in positions to score the ball, but she also has to have the balance of being aggressive herself, and I thought today she had great balance.”

Moore-McNeil was firing away from the jump, scoring five points in the first quarter. She added another five in the second quarter for a 10-point half. Moore-McNeil realized her teammates weren’t hitting enough shots and went into attack mode herself.

That aggressive mindset didn’t wane in the second half. She hit back-to-back layups early in the half as part of a 9-0 run that gave the Hoosiers an 11-point lead.

After Illinois stormed back late in the third quarter and into the fourth, the score was tied at 56. With 5:45 left, Moore-McNeil inbounded to Holmes, who pitched the ball right back for an open left-corner 3. Moore-McNeil sunk the shot to put Indiana ahead again, and the Hoosiers maintained the lead the rest of the way.

That 3 was Indiana’s second-most-important bucket of the game. The Hoosiers’ biggest shot involved Moore-McNeil again.

With under a minute to play, Moore-McNeil drove left off a Holmes screen. As she was smothered on the baseline by Illinois forward Kendall Bostic, Moore-McNeil whipped a live-dribble, one-handed pass to Garzon in the right corner. Garzon delivered the dagger to extend Indiana’s lead to 71-67 with 41 seconds left.

“Coach has been getting on me to be more aggressive, but that kind of pass is something that we work on literally every single day,” Moore-McNeil said.

Moore-McNeil finished with 19 points, tying her career-high she set in March 2023. It was just her fourth double-digit scoring game this season.

Heading into Sunday, Moore-McNeil was averaging 7.8 points per game after scoring 9.5 ppg in 2022-23. With Grace Berger moving to the pro ranks, Moore-McNeil carries all the responsibility to set up IU’s offense. Huge scoring performances like this have become less common for her, but as Big Ten play ramps up, the Hoosiers need more out of her.

From a leadership perspective, Moore-McNeil has been more active. The senior from Greenfield, Tenn., is one of the strong voices in the locker room along with Holmes. When IU suffered a 96-64 beatdown at Stanford on Nov. 12, Moore-McNeil called the team soft. The Hoosiers have won 10 straight games since then.

Holmes still led the show for Indiana with a 30-point performance in the win. But Moore-McNeil gave Indiana the lift it needed to get past the Fighting Illini. The large holiday break gave the entire IU team time to re-evaluate what the rest of the season should look like. For the Hoosiers to repeat as Big Ten champs, they’ll need more games like this from their senior point guard.

“When we can have Chloe be as aggressive as she was today, that will only help our basketball team,” Moren said. “So I’m really proud of what she was able to do today for us.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU women's basketball beats Illinois as Chloe Moore-McNeil steps up