Tucker DeVries sat down with a box score and a water bottle filled with yellow liquid in his right hand. He placed the two on the Indiana-branded wooden table.
Then, the redshirt senior forward wiped his face with his right hand as if he was relieved to escape with a win — a feeling he and his teammates hadn’t previously endured this season.
And it all came after Indiana men’s basketball improved to 4-0 with a narrow 69-61 victory Sunday over the University of Incarnate Word inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
“I know it didn't look pretty, but that's part of growing,” Tucker DeVries said postgame. “I think there is a lot we can take away from that as we look at it tomorrow.”
The Hoosiers struggled early as the Cardinals showed a 1-3-1 zone on defense, which Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said took the Cream and Crimson out of their usual rhythm. In turn, his squad was stagnant offensively.
Incarnate Word then went to a typical man-to-man defense and Indiana took advantage. The Hoosiers went on a 20-2 run in just over seven minutes. It seemed they would run away with yet another dominant victory.
Although freshman forward Trent Sisley and Tucker DeVries each drilled a 3-pointer during the run, Indiana finished the first half a measly 3 for 13 from beyond the arc. Its second-half performance wasn’t much better.
In total, the Hoosiers went 5 for 24 from deep — a far cry from the 47.5% 3-point clip they entered the game shooting. They shot just 43.4% from the field compared to 56% in the first three games of the season.
Despite the Cardinals pulling within 5 points late in the game, the Hoosiers held on. They found a way to win even with a rather unsatisfactory performance.
“But I think at the end of the day, that's important, to still find a way to win games when shots aren't falling,” Tucker DeVries said.
While Indiana held Incarnate Word to 38.3% from the field in the contest, the Cardinals went 54.8% in the second half. The visitors pulled within 5 points late and could’ve inched even closer after DeVries missed back-to-back free throws with a minute remaining.
Although Cardinals graduate student guard Tahj Staveski hit difficult shots throughout the final minutes of the game, he couldn’t do so in the final minute to truly give his squad a chance at victory.
“I thought early we probably weren't executing at a high level,” Tucker DeVries said. “I mean, we'll see after watching it. 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 up easy ones, but if you're going to give up a shot, that's where you want it to be.”
Even though the Cardinals made it difficult, the Hoosiers had to find a way to emerge with a victory.
In the Hoosiers’ first opportunity after three blowout victories, they did. And it’s something the Hoosiers will certainly have to do come conference play. It’s what separates good teams from great ones.
“I thought it was good for us to still pull out in the right way,” Tucker DeVries said.
Indiana’s offense wasn’t clicking. Nor was its defense. Fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson didn’t connect on any of his three attempts from long range. Tucker DeVries made three of his 13 3-point attempts.
However, senior forward Sam Alexis led the Hoosiers with 16 points and eight rebounds. Without Alexis, Tucker DeVries said the Cream and Crimson wouldn’t have won.
Still, even for a veteran-laden team, the Hoosiers’ energy wasn’t at the level Darian DeVries wanted it to be. He said it’s “fighting human nature” — which Indiana “can’t be.”
“We are missing the shots we normally make,” Darian DeVries said. “You got to continue to fight. In the first half we did.”
Darian DeVries said his squad will look back at the once-substantial advantage it built in the first half because of “really good” defense. But it slipped in the second half, as did the Hoosiers’ energy.
“That energy is something we have to play with,” Darian DeVries said. “We got to be a very spirited, physical, tough-minded group for 40 minutes every night. That's how we're going to win.”
But for Sunday, it’s another win. In totality, all that matters when the final buzzer sounds is having more points than the opponent. The Hoosiers did that against the Cardinals, even though they had to breathe a sigh of relief afterward for the first time in the Darian DeVries era.
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.
