Ideas on a 77-68 win towards Winthrop:
Oumar Ballo sat on the bench, inactive for tonight’s contest. Malik Reneau joined him for a lot of the sport, saddled with foul bother.
With Indiana’s beginning bigs making much less of an affect tonight, Langdon Hatton made probably the most of his alternative.
Within the Bahamas, Hatton did the little issues, stored the ball transferring and was additive to a crew idea. Tonight, in 26 minutes of motion, he did it once more in his greatest recreation as a Hoosier. In 14 first-half minutes, the Bellarmine switch racked up 5 offensive rebounds and drew fouls, preserving issues alive for the Hoosiers on a number of possessions. With Reneau choosing up an early third foul within the second half, Hatton once more performed many minutes and continued to shine. By recreation’s finish, he picked up seven factors, 11 boards, three blocks, one help and one steal. Whereas he did have 4 fouls, Hatton’s three blocks on the rim helped deter a Winthrop crew that obtained there time and again because the Eagles attacked all contest lengthy.
With Ballo not seeing the ground tonight and Reneau enjoying simply 14 minutes, Indiana wasn’t looking for to get as many put up touches as regular. In consequence, the offensive spacing was higher. That was large for Myles Rice, as he had extra room to function. Rice scored a number of baskets on the rim in each the half-court offense and in transition. His 18 factors (7-of-13) led the way in which for the Hoosiers. And towards a Winthrop squad that was attending to the road at the next charge than any crew within the nation heading into the competition, Indiana truly bested the Eagles in that division. The Hoosiers sported a free-throw charge of 36 p.c to Winthrop’s 31 p.c. Indiana went 16-of-24 (66.7 p.c) from the road. The Eagles shot 14-of-20 (70 p.c). Indiana additionally turned the ball over on simply 11 p.c of its possessions and obtained out in transition, scoring 17 fast-break factors.
And but, this recreation was shut. Indiana clung to a one-point lead (69-68) with 3:16 to play. An enormous motive why? Indiana was abysmal from 3-point vary. Luke Goode made Indiana’s first try from deep on the 17:04 of the primary half. However from there, the Hoosiers missed 19 in a row to shoot simply 5 p.c (1-of-20) for the sport. Goode completed 1-of-9. Mgbako went 0-of-5. Rice, Kanaan Carlyle and Trey Galloway shot a mixed 0-of-6. Greater than half (52.7 p.c) of Indiana’s misses got here from deep within the contest.
And whereas not as egregious as we’ve seen in different non-conference video games this season, the Hoosiers additionally had some effort and vitality lulls, permitting the Eagles to maintain tempo for your complete contest. Indiana by no means led by double-digits at any level on this one.
With the non-conference season within the books, Indiana hasn’t given a lot indication that will probably be within the combine for a Massive Ten title. And in any noteworthy NCAA event projection, the Hoosiers are at the moment on the surface wanting in. Proper now, this crew typically operates extra like a set of individually gifted gamers than a cohesive one with a robust id.
It’s labored towards groups from the likes of the Southern, Massive South and Ohio Valley Conferences. However in Massive Ten play? Indiana may be on its strategy to a sub-.500 mark if it might probably’t get its act collectively.
Filed to: Winthrop Eagles
