Thoughts about A 73-53 win against Lindenwood:
It’s a 20-point win, but this wasn’t the strong rebound Indiana was looking for after the ho-hum win against Incarnate Word.
The Hoosiers once again had a flat offensive first half, where everything felt at half speed, the cuts, movement and sharpness not at the level that Indiana showed in the first three games of the regular season. The shots didn’t fall either. Lamar Wilkerson missed all four of his three-point attempts and was 2-for-10 from the field in the first 20 minutes. The Hoosiers scored just 0.97 points per possession. On defense, Indiana didn’t control the boards well, allowing the Lions 13 offensive rebounds.
Luckily for the Hoosiers, Lindenwood didn’t make them pay for it, as it only yielded six second-chance points. In fact, the Lions were actually worse than Indiana on offense by a significant margin. They finished 0-for-10 on 3s in the first half and just 7-for-39 (17.9 percent) from the field. Indiana’s defense played well, but the Lions also missed a lot of solid looks.
Off the bench, Sam Alexis and Trent Sisley once again provided a spark as they did against Incarnate Word, playing with noticeable hustle and combining for nine rebounds and six points. Indiana had a 34-18 lead at halftime.
And then the Lions went on a 10-0 run to start the second half, cutting the lead to 34-28, with the 334th-ranked team on KenPom trying in the second half against the Hoosiers. But that would be that. Indiana then went on a 14-3 run of its own, pushing the lead to 19 points on a pair of free throws from Tucker DeVries. Indiana led by as many as 24 points. Lindenwood didn’t get close to 18 until late in the game.
The Hoosiers were in the bonus early in the second half, scoring a third (13) of their 39 second-half points at the line. DeVries started to feel it too and led the way. He scored 17 after the break, going 3-for-4 from deep, 4-for-4 from the line and 5-for-8 overall. He finished with 25 points. The only other Hoosier in double figures was Wilkerson, who scored 10 points on an inefficient 4-of-16 shooting mark from the field.
It’s back-to-back games now. The Hoosiers have scored 1.07 points per possession after averaging 1.38 points per possession in their first three games.
“I thought the guys really learned from the last few days of practice from the things that happened in our last game,” Darian DeVries said after the game. “I thought they responded really well from an energy level … they played hard tonight, but it wasn’t the same juice. Maybe part of that is when the offense isn’t flowing, they have to learn how to fight through that. It’s all things that early in the year, as you get going, you learn how to win games in a lot of different ways, and that’s important to have.”
Indiana can survive this kind of performance against the Incarnate Words and Lindenwoods of the world. But a look ahead at the schedule reveals names like Kansas State (KenPom No. 66), Louisville (KenPom No. 10) and Kentucky (KenPom No. 11, despite some early struggles).
Act against them like this? Indiana will have a much harder time coming up with the W.
See more: The minute after, Lindenwood Lions
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