The game started off tight, trading buckets back and forth. With 9:38 remaining in the first half, Indiana led by just 4 points.
However, over the next nine minutes and some change, that lead would grow to 16 points, as the Hoosiers’ defense held the Cardinals to just 19 points in the first half.
Indiana’s aggressive defense kept the Cream and Crimson out in front of a hungry University of the Incarnate Word team and gave the Hoosiers an ultimate 69-61 victory at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday.
While Indiana was able to sneak away with an 8-point win, the Cream and Crimson didn’t play the way Hoosier fans have been accustomed to so far this season.
In the first half, Indiana was just three for 13 from the 3-point line and wasn’t getting typical production out of its starters as redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries and fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson combined for just 9 points.
Despite the 3-point shooting woes and lack of starter production, the defense took a stand at the end of the first half to give the Hoosiers a substantial lead going into the break.
In the final nine minutes of first-half action, Indiana forced Incarnate Word into tough shots and held the Cardinals to just 5 points. This allowed the Hoosiers to grow their lead to 16 points. Indiana’s stifling defense kept the Cardinals to under 20 first-half points with just 20% shooting from the field and 25% from beyond the arc.
“That's where you got to really rely on your defense and rebounding and taking care of the ball,” Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said postgame. “I just thought the first half the reason our lead built up even though we weren't shooting it well was our defense was really good.”
Indiana continued to add to the lead early in the second half and led by as many as 19 points. However, Incarnate Word continued to fight, making tough shot after tough shot. Shots that weren’t falling for Incarnate Word in the first half began to fall in the second half.
“To be honest, execution-wise I thought on defense they hit some tough shots, especially late,” Tucker DeVries said. “I thought at the end they hit some tough ones, 15 feet, or kind of the ones that we were trying to give up — not trying to give them easy ones, but if you’re going to give up a shot, that’s where you want it to be.”
Despite Incarnate Word cutting the lead to just 5 points late in the second half, Indiana took a stand and found a way to win — something good teams do.
The Hoosiers continued to find a way to make stops, despite the high--level shots the Cardinals were sinking late in the game.
“So that's something that we'll take and go, like, ‘hey, you built this lead because your defense was still really good,’” Darian DeVries said. “That energy is something we have to play with. We got to be a very spirited, physical, tough-minded group for 40 minutes every night. That's how we're going to win.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) and columnist Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
