“We didn’t respond well enough”: IU basketball undone by second-half collapse at Kentucky
- Josh Pos
- 9h ago
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Darian DeVries paced towards the end of his bench, scratching his head in bewilderment. The roar of the 20,061 fans inside Rupp Arena reached a fever pitch as forward Sam Alexis motioned toward the bench, frustrated.
Kentucky’s Mouhamed Dioubate beat Tucker DeVries to a loose ball on a missed free throw and hit it off the Hoosier’s shin out of bounds in front of the home bench.
Alexis and Darian DeVries’ emotions were different, yet in a way, were entirely justified. Indiana, which held a nine-point advantage in the second half, found itself down by seven with two minutes left on the clock.
In that moment, it was evident that Kentucky had officially snapped Indiana’s will. It ultimately was the sealing moment in the Hoosiers’ 72-60 road defeat in the first regular-season game between the two rivals since 2011.
“[Kentucky] certainly cranked it up a notch in that second half,” Darian DeVries said postgame. “I thought their aggressiveness on the offensive glass was ultimately the factor.”
That unraveling began almost immediately after Indiana lost its on-court anchor.
When Lamar Wilkerson reluctantly jogged to the bench after picking up his fourth personal foul two minutes into the second half, Indiana held a seven-point advantage at 42-35.
Without their best player on the floor, the Hoosiers collapsed offensively. By the time Wilkerson went back to the scorers’ table to check in eight minutes later, the damage had been done.
The Wildcats went on a 17-2 run to take their first lead since the game’s opening possessions. The once-lifeless crowd stood possession after possession, crescendoing after each Indiana miss and Kentucky make.
“During that little stretch that he wasn’t out there, that’s when the turnovers started to happen,” Darian DeVries said. “We weren’t able to get into some of our actions the way we needed to.”
In its ferocious second-half turnaround, Kentucky won possession of nearly every loose ball and ratcheted up its defensive effort. Indiana struggled to find clean looks, shooting just 27.3 percent from the field after halftime and going 1-for-10 from beyond the arc.
The pressure also forced Indiana into uncharacteristic mistakes. The Hoosiers turned the ball over a dozen times in the second half alone – 18 total – allowing Kentucky to extend runs without needing to score efficiently in the half-court.
“The second half, Kentucky certainly turned up the pressure and was able to get into us,” Darian DeVries said postgame. “We didn’t respond well enough, and we turned the ball over too much.”
Similar to its losses last week to Minnesota and Louisville, the Indiana offense once again fell stagnant on Saturday.
The IU offensive game plan went out the window, prolonging Kentucky’s long runs with motionless possessions that ended in late shot clock heaves clanking off the rim.
Unable to successfully fulfill his role as the primary ballhandler, Tayton Conerway turned the ball over four times, each one more excruciating than the last. Tucker DeVries couldn’t buy a shot from deep, converting on just one of his nine attempts from deep.
“We just got on our heels a little bit and didn’t play as disciplined as we needed to,” Darian DeVries said. “We didn’t do a good enough job of creating space.”
When building his roster, Darian DeVries knew Indiana wouldn’t be the most talented team on paper. The plan was to outwork opponents, be the aggressor and close that gap through effort.
Eleven games into the season, that identity remains elusive. With two buy games left before Big Ten play resumes in three weeks, time is dwindling. Until Indiana finds it, nights like Saturday in Lexington may continue to define the Hoosiers’ road.
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
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