The Minute After: Incarnate Word

Photos of IU basketball's win against Incarnate Word at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Thoughts on a 69-61 win against the Cardinals:

Welp, this one was certainly different.

After making things look free and easy in its first three wins, Indiana’s offense grinded to a halt in this one. The 3-pointers wouldn’t fall — no matter how open or good a look the Hoosiers got on ’em. IU shot just 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) for the game. Other than Trent Sisley (2-of-4) and Tucker DeVries, who shot 11 but made just three, nobody made one from distance. Lamar Wilkerson (0-of-3), Tayton Conerway (0-of-3), Conor Enright (0-of-2) and Nick Dorn (0-of-1) combined to go 0-of-9 from distance. Incarnate Word also mixed in a zone during the first half to junk things up. While IU earned some easy scores against the zone, it also disrupted the offensive flow, something the Hoosiers never fully recovered from for the rest of the game.

After averaging 1.38 points per possession so far this season, Indiana scored just 1.07 tonight.

It seemed as though it wouldn’t matter. IU turned it up on defense instead. The Cardinals had a rough go of it in the first half, shooting just 20.7 percent from the field and making only six field goals. They scored just five points in the last nine-plus minutes before halftime. With Wilkerson in foul trouble (two points in nine minutes of action) and the rest of the starting lineup also not at its best, the Hoosiers got a big boost from their bench thanks to Sisley and Sam Alexis. They combined for 20 points and 11 rebounds in the first half, which helped to steady things.

Indiana entered the locker room up a comfortable 35-19. And after a pair of DeVries free throws put the Hoosiers up 19 at 48-29 with 12:47 to go in the game, it looked like IU was well on its way to another large margin of victory.

But that wasn’t what happened.

Incarnate Word started to heat up and things got interesting. Tahj Staveskie, who led all scorers with 17 points, got hot, scoring 13 points in about 10 minutes of game action. He was particularly strong in the mid-range. The Cardinals also made five 3-pointers over the last 9-plus minutes of the game as Indiana only mustered one during the same time frame. Things got so bad for IU’s offense that DeVries missed two free throws during a trip to the line as IU nursed just a five-point lead with a minute to play. But that was as close as the Cardinals would get, as Indiana closed things out at the free-throw line and escaped with an eight-point victory.

“[We] weren’t shooting it as well as we typically do,” Darian DeVries said during his post-game interview with the Big Ten Network’s Brian Butch. “But I thought we got a little stagnant tonight, so we weren’t getting the same types of shots that we’re accustomed to getting. You let somebody hang around, and all of a sudden, they hit a few, and now you’re in it. There’s a lot to learn from this early in the year.”

This one won’t be part of the highlight package of the DeVries era. Still, on a night the shots weren’t falling and the offense stalled, Indiana still found a way to win.

It’s better than the alternative.

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