IU basketball ‘couldn’t come up with that one more play’ in loss at USC

Sam Alexis goes for a rebound at USC.

LOS ANGELES – Wide open in the left corner, Nick Dorn released the basketball. Three points on the line, the Nike Evolution basketball twirled around the rim before falling out.

In the same moment, a hopeful Darian DeVries and the Indiana bench tried to will the shot that would have cut the deficit down to five with less than three minutes left. Nearly a minute later, Southern California regained its 9-point advantage.

Near-misses were the theme of Indiana’s night in the Galen Center. It failed to capitalize on golden opportunities late in its 81-75 defeat against USC on Tuesday.

DeVries, frustrated with the many factors that led to his team’s three-game win streak being snapped, emphasized a singular word to describe just how close his team was to a 2-0 trip on the West Coast.

“We couldn’t get that three to go,” Darian DeVries said. “And then we couldn’t follow it up with that stop.”

Dorn wasn’t alone in missed opportunities. It was just that kind of night for Indiana.

Multiple times in the second half, the Hoosiers fought back into striking distance — closing the gap to two possessions — only to come up empty when it mattered most.

In the game’s waning moments, Tayton Conerway missed a free throw with less than 30 seconds left that would have made it a one-point game. Had the redshirt senior converted, his team would’ve had at least a chance of tying the game – no matter what USC did at the charity stripe.

Despite a late surge that shaved an 11-point deficit to two in the final seconds, the Hoosiers were undone by the work they left unfinished earlier.

“We shouldn’t have been that close in the first place,” Lamar Wilkerson said. “We dug ourselves a hole, and then we just couldn’t get out of it. That’s on us.”

That hole was dug in the first half.

A sluggish opening 20 minutes forced the Hoosiers to play from behind the rest of the night.

Chasing the game only compounded Indiana’s problems on the other end of the floor. Its offensive dry spells bled into the defensive end.

USC scored in a variety of ways off Hoosier mistakes, using straight-line drives, second-chance points and trips to the free-throw line to build and maintain its lead.

“We seemed a little half a step slow tonight,” Darian DeVries said. “I thought we were ready. We just didn’t quite have it tonight throughout the contest.”

USC entered the game with two clear advantages: size and a conference-leading ability to get to the free-throw line. Indiana struggled with both.

The Trojans scored 15 points off 11 offensive rebounds and attempted 31 free throws to Indiana’s 16.

Darian DeVries couldn’t explain his team’s performance immediately postgame, but circled the 10 extra minutes the team played on Saturday afternoon across town against UCLA.

“I don’t know if the heavy minutes the other night had anything to do with it,” he said. “But I thought we had a good two days of practice. They were really engaged and coming into the game.

“Unfortunately, we just couldn’t come up with that one more play to get us over the top.”

Wilkerson was the lone Hoosier exempt from being a step slow. The senior guard anchored Indiana, willing his team back from the grave with make after make.

He finished with 33 points – 20 in the second half – on 11-of-20 shooting. His five makes from distance matched the rest of the team’s output in 11 fewer attempts.

While Wilkerson flourished, Dorn and Tucker DeVries withered.

The duo combined to shoot 3-for-21 from the field, unable to assist in Wilkerson’s near-flawless performance.

“I thought Nick’s been shooting about as well as anybody in the country. He just had an off night,” Darian DeVries said. “(Tucker DeVries) had some really good looks as well. They just didn’t go down.

“We didn’t get that second and third scorer like we’ve been getting tonight.”

Indiana’s NCAA tournament resume remains largely unchanged, headed back to Bloomington. The magnitude of Saturday’s win at UCLA outweighs the consequences of Tuesday night’s loss at USC.

Still, missed opportunities are becoming more frequent — and more costly — for Indiana’s postseason case.

In Year 1, Darian DeVries has emphasized restoring the feeling of Indiana basketball: withstanding adversity, making clutch plays and closing tight games, as the Hoosiers did in their previous two wins.

Indiana will have its next chance to rediscover that – that three, that stop, that winning feeling – Saturday, when it returns to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to face Wisconsin.

“We’ve been playing good basketball and had a rough one tonight, but we can’t let it linger,” Darian DeVries said. “We’ve got to get refocused and get ready for Saturday.”

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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