Indiana men’s basketball couldn’t afford to replicate the sluggish performance it turned in Tuesday that resulted in a loss to USC.
Hosting Wisconsin on Saturday inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, the Hoosiers had an opportunity to bolster their NCAA Tournament resume. Despite squandering its lead in the second half, Indiana earned a 78-77 overtime victory and moved to 16-8 overall and 7-6 in Big Ten play.
Fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson led the Hoosiers with 25 points — including the game-winning free throw. Senior forward Sam Alexis notched 19 points, while redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries added 16 points and six rebounds.
Indiana began the contest with seven consecutive points before Wisconsin’s Nick Boyd hit a 3-pointer. The senior guard shushed the Hoosiers’ student section before draining another longball but went just 2 for 9 from the field in the rest of the first half.
The Cream and Crimson went on 6-0 and 8-0 runs in the middle stages of the opening half, pushing their lead to 14 points. The Badgers responded around three minutes later with their own 8-0 spurt, but the Hoosiers entered halftime with a six-point lead. Wilkerson paced Indiana with 11 points in the first half while redshirt senior guard Conor Enright added seven.
Both squads traded buckets for the first five and a half minutes of the second half until Tucker DeVries went on a 6-0 run to give Indiana a 13-point lead. Wilkerson followed with consecutive 2-point makes, giving the Hoosiers a 10-point advantage at the under-12 media timeout.
Much like Indiana did in its loss to USC, Wisconsin made several runs at Indiana’s lead throughout the final 10 minutes of the second half Saturday. The Badgers, however, took the lead with less than two minutes left. Wilkerson tied the contest at 72 with a pair of free throws with 16.6 seconds left, and the Hoosiers notched a defensive stop to force overtime.
With 15.1 seconds left in overtime and the Hoosiers down one, Enright drew a charge. Wilkerson drove toward the basket on Indiana’s ensuing possession but was fouled and went to the free-throw line.
Wilkerson drained both shots, securing the Hoosiers’ 16th victory of the season. The Cream and Crimson shot 47.6% from the field and 22.7% from beyond the arc — their third-worst mark this season.
Indiana returns to the hardwood at 8:30 p.m. Monday against Oregon inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The contest will be televised on FS1.
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.
