It was a sight that Indiana has shown quite a lot the past three years — offensive struggles plaguing the Hoosiers to an underwhelming performance.
The Hoosiers had their worst scoring output in head coach Archie Miller’s tenure with a 66-44 defeat to the No.17 Texas Longhorns in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C. on Tuesday. IU’s 44 points are the least ever under Miller and is also the fourth time Indiana has failed to break 50 points with Miller at the helm.
“I think that Texas a little bit stunned our guys in the first four to five minutes of the game,” Miller said postgame. “They imposed early on how physical and how tough they were going to play and I thought that played a role to knock us on our heels.”
Indiana (2-1, 0-0 B1G) shot 24% from the field at 11-of-46 and 20% on 3-pointers at 2-of-10. The one small bright spot of the Hoosiers’ shooting was 29 free throws attempted, but IU shot just 69% from the free-throw line. Both Indiana and Texas (3-0, 0-0 Big 12) struggled shooting the ball early, combining for just 12-of-20 on the first 40 shots of the game. However, the Longhorns hit their next 14 field goals while the Hoosiers could only muster seven made field goals.
Texas had limited turnover from last season’s team that ranked 27th in scoring defense at 63.3 points per game. The Longhorns came out from the opening tip and put pressure on Indiana’s offense, in particular focusing on Al Durham and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Durham recorded just eight points on 2-of-7 shooting and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line. The senior guard did not score a single point in the second half and left the game with an injury.
Miller said postgame that Durham is doubtful for Indiana’s game on Wednesday.
The Hoosiers struggled against the size of Texas, who has five players at 6-foot-9 or above. Jackson-Davis scored 17 points, but made seven free throws. The Greenwood, Ind. hauled in just four rebounds and five turnovers, and could not find ways to get the ball in the basket inside
“He’s missing some easy ones,” Miller said. “I think he’s trying to get fouled rather than just playing and scoring.”
Jackson-Davis needs to get back to his All-Big Ten performance from a season ago for Indiana to have success. IU is not playing Tennessee Tech every night and the Hoosiers leading scorer and all of their front court players must be ready to face bigger and stronger competition. Not finishing at the rim and losing the rebounding battle 48-29 is not going to take Indiana far this season.
One Reply to “Indiana shows a familiar side in loss to No.17 Texas in Maui semifinal”