Through Indiana men’s basketball’s 31-game regular season, it allowed 72.1 points per game. Its opponents shot 42.7% from the field. The Hoosiers’ adversaries made seven 3-pointers and 16.1 free throws per contest.
Over the Cream and Crimson’s final six games of the regular season, their opponents cleared the scoring average on three occasions. They bested the shooting percentage five times, topped the 3-point norm three times and the free throw standard just twice.
But in Saturday’s game, the Hoosiers’ opponent passed all four marks. Ohio State poured in 91 points with 11 3-pointers and 22 free throws on 59.2% shooting from the field as it defeated the Hoosiers by 13 points inside the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, in their final regular season contest.
In a game in which Ohio State crowned a new all-time scoring leader (senior guard Bruce Thornton surpassed 2,096 career points), the Hoosiers lacked any cause for celebration.
Indiana briefly led in the opening minutes, but the game’s only lead change occurred with 17:16 remaining in the first half. The Hoosiers’ defense unraveled as the half went on.
The Buckeyes went on five 5-0 or better runs in the opening frame and pushed their lead to 17 points by halftime. Ohio State led by double digits for the final 24 minutes of action.
“I thought we were back and forth a little bit, in decent shape,” Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said postgame. “And then they got going, they got a couple drives to the rim, hit a few threes, and the lead exploded.”
Ohio State made five of its first six field goals. Then eight of its first 12. A streak of six consecutive makes brought the Buckeyes up to 17 for 25, and they ended the half shooting 19 for 28.
Three Buckeyes reached double figures in the first 20 minutes, and four connected on multiple 3-pointers. Ohio State shot 67.9% from the field and 61.5% from beyond the arc. It was a nonstop assault on the Hoosiers’ defense that spiraled into a huge lead Indiana couldn’t recover from.
Early in the second half, Ohio State pushed its advantage beyond 20 points, where it stayed for much of the first 10 minutes of the final frame. However, the Cream and Crimson intensified their offensive efforts as the half wore on.
Fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson led the team with 18 points but was outscored in the second half by redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries and senior forward Sam Alexis. DeVries and Alexis tallied 11 and 10 points, respectively, as the Hoosiers outscored the Buckeyes by four in the second half.
“I thought as the game went on, we adjusted, and we were able to get downhill and get to the rim and stuff,” Darian DeVries said. “But it was a little too late on that offensive end.”
Indiana attempted a season-low 18 3-pointers and connected on just five. Wilkerson remains four longballs behind former Hoosier guard Steve Alford’s 1986-87 single season record of 107 makes. But Wilkerson’s 18 points brought his total conference points to 464 to overtake former Indiana center Don Schlundt as the new program leader for points in Big Ten contests.
The loss dropped Indiana’s Quadrant 1 record to 2-11. The Hoosiers squandered their final five Quad 1 opportunities and dropped a Quad 2 game to Northwestern along the way. The Cream and Crimson’s NCAA Tournament hopes appear near-extinct, although they’ve been aided by a smattering of Saturday losses from other bubble teams.
While an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament may be out of reach, the Hoosiers will trudge into the postseason focused on the task at hand: making a run in the Big Ten Tournament.
“Now, it's you prepare for post-season play,” DeVries said. “Post-season play, it's just you get ready for that next one, and you play as long as you can, and win as many games as you can, and that's going to be our mindset. So, worry about the one in front of you. The one in front of us is going to be Wednesday, and that's really all we care about at this point.”
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.
