BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Hoosiers move back into the win column tonight, defeating Northwestern by a final margin of 66 to 62. Led by the trio of Trayce Jackson-Davis, Al Durham, and Justin Smith who scored a combined 55 points, Indiana is now 12-3 on the season with a 2-2 record in the Big Ten.

Despite facing one of the lower tier teams in the league, any win in the Big Ten this season is a great win. Just ask Iowa, Penn State, and Ohio State who were all upset on Tuesday evening. Chris Collins’ Wildcats team move to 5-9 and continue their search for their first conference victory.

With Northwestern’s best player (arguably) guard Boo Buie ruled out due to an high ankle injury, the early lines began to move more in favor of the home team in Bloomington as tip-off neared. Indiana would have an easy tuneup game against the Big Ten’s worst team, who were depleted down to just eight scholarship players.

Or so we thought.

Both teams kicked off the game with heated offense and not much defense. Both the Hoosiers and Northwestern shot over 50% on the floor for the early stages of the first half. On the Wildcats’ side, Miller Kopp kicked off the Northwestern offense with 7 of the first 9 points. After adjustments from Archie Miller, the Hoosiers held off Kopp, but converted lacrosse player Pat Spencer took on the brunt of the scoring responsibility. He shared the halftime game high scoring with Indiana’s Jackson-Davis with ten points.

But as the first half ended, Indiana’s continued struggles began to peak from the ground. Starting with 6:44 remaining in the first half, Northwestern went on an 11-0 streak that gave the Wildcats a one point lead at 30-29. The Hoosiers would only get two free throws for the remainder of the first half for a whopping 15-2 run for the Wildcats, which gave them the lead going into the intermission.

The sluggish offense involved a ton of passing along the perimeter and a number of shot clock violations. Indiana’s defense did not play with aggression or authority frankly from the opening tip. The first half did see highlights such as a full-extension alley-oop from Al Durham to Jackson-Davis and a number of forced turnovers by the Indiana defense.

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Jackson-Davis was the main source of the Indiana offense once again. The freshman navigated around the block and created mismatches against his undersized opponent anytime he touched the ball. Northwestern quickly jumped to a double-team as a counter, but even then Jackson-Davis found seams to escape.

However, by the 8:59 mark, Jackson-Davis would not take another field goal attempt until the second half. Northwestern fronted Jackson-Davis and forced him to come out of the paint in order to even touch the rock.

But the poor plays, bad decision making, 11 turnovers, and lack of off-ball activity gave the fans in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to boo as the players finished the first half down by three points to the Big Ten’s worst team.

Positively, the Hoosiers were able to attack the paint with more effectiveness than recent games, and they had created foul trouble for a number of Northwestern’s primary players. By the half, three starters for Northwestern had at least two fouls, including Pete Nance who had three. The Hoosiers took advantage by shooting 8 of 11 at the free throw line in the first period.

At the beginning the second half, the wheels, rims, and brakes fell off of Archie Miller’s team.

When attacking the rim, Indiana could not find open opportunities to feed the interior without the frontcourt needing to come out. In the rare instances when the ball was received on the block, Northwestern’s double-teaming disrupted shots for the Hoosiers.