At the Buzzer: Indiana 81, Mega Superbet 80

Tayton Conerway handles the ball.

Quick thoughts on an 81-80 exhibition win against Mega Superbet:

How it happened

Indiana had another poor first half in its final exhibition game in Puerto Rico on Monday morning. The Hoosiers fell behind quickly – 7-2 – and it wasn’t long before Mega Superbet pushed the lead to double figures at 14-3. Darian DeVries took a timeout as the lead ballooned to 16 points at 21-5. After IU trailed 26-7, the Hoosiers closed the first quarter with an 8-0 to make it 26-15. Tayton Conerway’s eight points paced IU in the opening 10 minutes.

After Indiana got within seven at 33-26, Mega Superbet began to pull away again. The Serbian professional team went on an 8-0 run to make it 41-26 and the lead stretched to 20 by intermission at 50-30. Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries both went scoreless in the first half and IU allowed Mega Superbet to shoot nearly 60 percent from the field.

First half scoring for Indiana: Conerway 18, Sam Alexis 5, Reed Bailey 4, Conor Enright 3.

Wilkerson found his touch early in the third quarter and had nine points in the first four minutes as the Hoosiers got within 13 at 52-39. And DeVries got his first bucket on a dunk to make it 56-43. A 3-pointer from Jasai Miles, his first points of the afternoon, made it 65-52 as the Hoosiers tried to get the lead to single digits. By the end of the period, IU had outscored Mega Superbet 27-19 and trailed 69-57 on the strength of 11 points from Wilkerson.

A 3-point play from Wilkerson opened the scoring in the fourth quarter to get IU within nine at 69-60. A 3-point play by DeVries allowed to get IU within six at 69-63. But Mega Superbet answered with the next five points to push the lead back to double figures at 74-63. DeVries had another 3-point play to get IU within eight at 76-68 with 6:26 left. A 3-pointer from Wilkerson got Indiana within seven at 78-71. DeVries split a pair of free throws to get the Hoosiers within six at 78-72 with 4:20 remaining. Mega Superbet answered with a pair of free throws to make it 80-72 with 3:18 to play and two free throws from DeVries made it 80-74. A 3-point play by Alexis got IU within three at 80-77 and an Aleksa Ristic bucket cut the lead to one at 80-79 with less than a minute to go. After a Mega Superbet turnover with just over 20 seconds left, Wilkerson found Reed Bailey for a dunk to put IU up 81-80 with just over six seconds left. IU got a stop on the final possession to finish the Puerto Rico trip unbeaten at 3-0.