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.