After starting the season with a perfect 7-0 record, Indiana men’s basketball suffered its first loss of the season in an unexpected way. The Hoosiers dropped their Big Ten opener to then 4-4 Minnesota 73-64 on Dec. 3 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Following the loss, the Hoosiers needed a response. Yet, they fell to the University of Louisville 87-78 in their following game Dec. 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
With back-to-back losses, the Hoosiers were in a losing streak — something they had yet to face this season. Indiana needed a bounce-back performance. And this time, that performance was more urgent than ever as the University of Kentucky awaits the Hoosiers on Dec. 13.
This time, Indiana found that response and returned to the style of play it found such success in early in the season. The Hoosiers delivered an exemplary performance to get back in the win column and defeat Penn State 113-72 on Tuesday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
“We lost the last two, so we were coming as a team, collective, trying to get back to the way we was playing,” fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson said postgame.
Against Minnesota, the Hoosiers were held to eight 3-pointers and only shot 30% from beyond the arc. Indiana also tallied just 14 assists on the night — six fewer than its season average. The ball was not moving well, and the Hoosiers, in turn, weren’t generating the offense they needed.
And against Louisville, Indiana got out to a poor, slow start. The Hoosiers were down 16-0 six minutes into the contest and were unable to get a basket until 13:28 remained on the clock in the first half.
Indiana was disrupted by the Cardinal defense and turned the ball over a total of 13 times. The Cream and Crimson were also held to 14 assists once again and shot 32% from the 3-point line. The Hoosiers were unable to hold the Louisville offense and were never able to recover from the early 16-to-nothing deficit it created.
If the Hoosiers were to bounce back, they could not start in their contest against the Nittany Lions in the same fashion they did against the Cardinals. They needed a change. That change came in the form of senior forward Sam Alexis.
Alexis replaced senior Reed Bailey as the starting forward Tuesday night. The University of Florida transfer has been an energy boost for the Hoosiers all season long and could create that juice for Indiana from the jump.
“Lineup change, like I told Reed and Sam, it wasn't anything more than we just wanted to try to create a spark,” Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said postgame.
And that “spark” was created. Penn State scored the first bucket of the game for an early 2-0 advantage over the Hoosiers. However, Indiana responded immediately with a 3-point basket to take the lead — which Indiana would hold for the remainder of the game.
The Hoosiers got out to a hot start with four shots beyond the arc within the first three minutes of the game and never went cold.
Indiana scored an astonishing 113 points — the most over any conference opponent for Indiana since 1990 — and sunk 17 3-pointers. Indiana tallied 30 assists on 42 made field goals and shot 69% from the field.
DeVries credited the way the Hoosiers played postgame and said 30 assists signified they were getting clean, good looks at the kind of shots they wanted.
Wilkerson led the offensive performance with 44 points and made 10 3-pointers, setting a career high in points and a record for most made 3-pointers in a single game in program history. His 44 points also broke the all-time single-game scoring record inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Four other Indiana players scored double figures including 17 points from sixth-year senior guard Tayton Conerway, 12 points from redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries, 13 from junior guard Nick Dorn and 18 from Bailey.
The turnaround was exactly what the Hoosiers needed. Disciplined and unselfish play led to high quality offense for the Cream and Crimson.
“I thought the guys did a really good job tonight keeping the ball as we like to say 'hot,' keeping it hot, keeping it moving,” Darian DeVries said. “Player and ball movement, I thought, was really good tonight.”
Indiana will look to “keep it moving” and continue its momentum into its next game against Kentucky at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 13 inside Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. The game will be streamed on ESPN.
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.
