COLUMBUS, Ohio — They nearly did it again.
Eleven. That’s how many points the Hoosiers led by after the first 138 seconds Saturday.
Three 3-pointers by the junior guard trifecta of James Blackmon Jr., Robert Johnson and Josh Newkirk accompanied by a Blackmon layup put IU in the driver’s seat.
It should have been heartening with the Hoosiers up by double-digits for the majority of the first half, but anyone who has watched IU men’s basketball this season was far from comfortable.
Iowa. Minnesota. Many a game this year saw the Hoosiers take an early lead and fumble it away with careless passes and lackluster defense.
The question wasn’t whether or not IU, leading by 14 going into the second half against Ohio State, would blow the lead. Instead, it was how the Hoosiers would do it.
On Saturday, it was the defense that nearly did the Hoosiers in.
A 10-0 run by the Buckeyes closed the gap in the second half, and Thad Matta’s crew eventually took the lead.
It was going to happen again. The Hoosiers came out firing on all cylinders but would peter out in another devastating loss. The column had written itself.
“Hoosiers repeat their mistakes, and we’ve all had enough.”
That column never came to fruition.
Instead of dying out, the Hoosiers fought back. They didn’t shoot 64.7 percent from the field like they did in the first half, but they scratched and clawed and emerged from the muck with a much-needed 96-92 victory in the regular season finale.
It would have been admirable if it wasn’t their own mistakes that nearly sunk them in the first place.
There are positives to be found for sure.
Sophomore forward Juwan Morgan attacked the rim like he was possessed, and the Hoosier bench came to life late in the game with an energy that was absent to start the second half.
IU had the free-throw advantage in the last 20 minutes, a concept that has been foreign to Hoosier faithful lately.
It took every bit of vigor, a bit of luck and the vital resurgence of Johnson and his 26 points, but the Hoosiers won on the road.
There were so many caveats, of course, as this Hoosier season has been wont to elicit.
Ohio State is also in a down year. The Hoosiers needed to shoot better than 50 percent from behind the arc to take down the Buckeyes.
IU’s defense can still be found on a milk carton underneath the word “missing.”
However, the Hoosiers did enough to win Saturday in Value City Arena.
IU now sits at 17-14, 10th place in the Big Ten and a near lock for the NIT.
This is a phenomenal drop from where they were expected to be at this time, but we all know that by now.
What we can further analyze is how the team is improving.
This time they didn’t give up. This time, the Hoosiers were the team winning a back-and-forth game.
This time, it was the IU players smiling in the postgame handshake line. This time they did it.
The Hoosiers finally realized they had to play all 40 minutes to win.
gigottfr@indiana.edu
@gott31
