“They left it all out there”: IU basketball displays character, grit in double overtime win at UCLA
- Josh Pos
- 1h ago
LOS ANGELES – UCLA’s prayer was answered. The Bruins, who trailed by 10 with less than two minutes left, tied the game on a Trent Perry 3-pointer with mere seconds on the clock to force overtime.
Indiana’s bench displayed a look of disbelief. What looked like a third straight victory for the Hoosiers evaporated in a matter of minutes and the noise inside Pauley Pavilion crescendoed when Jasai Miles’ full-court heave fell short. Still in awe of the happenings, Darian DeVries’ team had to prepare itself for five more minutes of action.
The theme of the huddle? Four, relatively simple, words from veteran Tucker DeVries.
“Flush it. Next play.”
The mantra suddenly became the rally cry of the next 10 minutes of game action. Unaltered by its late-game collapse, Indiana battled through two overtime periods. The Hoosiers trailed in the final minute of both periods, but found a way. Freshman Trent Sisley made a free throw with 0.3 left to secure Indiana’s exhilarating 98-97 victory.
“I just thought it showed a lot of guts, a lot of character, a lot of poise by a lot of different guys and having the ability to be ready when your number’s called,” Darian DeVries said postgame. “So overall, I’m just happy with how they were able to fight.”
Indiana’s resiliency won out, but the victory didn’t come easy by any means.
Adversity mounted when the Hoosiers’ already thin depth chart was trimmed when starting guard Conor Enright fouled out with less than 10 seconds remaining in regulation. Without Enright and Tayton Conerway, who missed his third straight game with an ankle injury, Indiana lacked a ballhandler.
Reed Bailey fouled out with 2:46 left in the first overtime period, further depleting Indiana’s bench. Bailey, who posted a season-high 24 points, had to watch on the sideline as his teammates finished the game.
There were blank stares from the Indiana bench as key players watched from the sideline. Despair wouldn’t last for long as it shifted into hope as the five on the floor battled to the next play.
Stops, scores and everything in between throughout the two-five minute periods became about the team.
Whether it was Lamar Wilkerson’s 10 points in the two overtimes, Sisley’s game-winning free throw or Tucker DeVries skying for defensive rebounds, nothing was to prevent the group from a team win.
Top to bottom, each of the eight players in crimson uniforms had a hand in the victory. Nick Dorn went unconscious, scoring 21-second-half points to finish with a season-high 26 points. Sam Alexis converted on three shots from the free-throw line in overtime. The list goes on.
Individual stats didn’t matter. It was about earning an elusive road victory – Indiana’s third in conference play – against a UCLA team that entered Saturday an unblemished 12-0 at home.
Players embraced, walking to the locker room serenaded with a chorus of cheers from the Indiana contingent in the stands.
“I feel like that just shows how connected we are as a team and how we’re growing as a team,” Dorn said. “It’s just getting even more crisp every time we step out on the court.”
Indiana could have chosen to cave in late. But as it did in its Tuesday win against No. 12 Purdue, it bent, but refused to break.
The close-knit group – who came together in early June in Bloomington – didn’t want to let the game get away. They had come so far to get so close and it felt as if they had to win the game. A win was necessary to start the two-game West Coast trip on a high note.
“We came all the way out here,” Dorn said. “We didn’t want the days in between to be horrible.
“If we didn’t pull that out, it would have been scary for us; you might not have heard from us.”
Indiana undeniably bolstered its resumé in the last week. Securing a pair of quad-one victories in five days goes a long way toward an NCAA tournament bid.
Darian DeVries, however, isn’t thinking that far ahead.
“If you stack up enough of them, it’ll be what it’s going to be, but we can’t worry about stuff,” he said. “We have to control what we can control right in front of us.”
The durability Indiana exhibited after its lowest moments late in the second half displayed the true identity of this year’s team. It revealed that even in a challenging circumstance, the veteran-filled roster will try to will itself to victory.
“They’re just playing their guts out right now, and that’s what I love about them,” Darian DeVries said. “They’re giving us everything they got, and they left it all out there, and fortunately, we were able to come away with a win.”
The team’s season wasn’t on the line on Saturday. Its March Madness chances would still have had longevity, no matter the result in Westwood.
Yet the Hoosiers played overtime as if the result decided their March fate.
Focus now shifts towards the next game: the second of Indiana’s two games in Los Angeles against Southern California (USC) on Tuesday.
It’s Indiana’s opportunity build off Saturday afternoon’s momentum, while putting itself to the test of living up to its mantra:
“Flush it. Next play.”
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
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