Entering tonight’s sport at Maryland, Darian DeVries’ Indiana had but to win a real highway sport on the season, dropping winnable video games to each Minnesota and Kentucky. Buzz Williams’ Terrapins, winless via three video games in Big Ten play, made for the proper lure sport opponent.
To keep away from one other highway upset, DeVries was most likely hoping for a begin like Sunday evening’s when Conor Enright and Tayton Conerway paired as much as go 5-5 from 3-point vary on Indiana’s first 5 subject targets. Instead, his staff got here out flat offensively, scoring 5 whole factors over the primary six minutes of play.
Advertisement
Things didn’t warmth up shortly for both staff from there.
Through the primary 11 minutes of play, Maryland led 16-13, a lead Indiana reduce into by a Lamar Wilkerson layup that was the start of the gradual thaw for Indiana’s offense following an ice chilly begin. The Hoosiers scored 36 factors within the first half, 16 of which got here on the free throw line.
With such a big proportion of the factors coming from the charity stripe, it’d be laborious to name what Indiana did to shut out the primary half a “run,” but it surely was sufficient for a 5 level lead over a Maryland staff that’s struggling to determine an offensive id in yr one below its new coach.
By the break Indiana had shot 9-26 from the ground, together with 2-12 from three.
Advertisement
The second half was a special story, largely due to 16-straight factors from Wilkerson, who caught hearth from 3-point vary and out of the blue turned a risk out to the brand. The Hoosier protection did its half to make Wilkerson’s scorching streak a 16-4 staff run, however his team-high 24 factors was an excessive amount of for the Terps to deal with.
DeVries’ group shot higher within the second half as an entire, with Enright and Conerway additionally cashing in from 3-point vary, serving to Indiana go 6-13 from deep within the remaining 20 minutes. Reed Bailey had 10 second half factors on some huge open dunks on backdoor cuts with a lot consideration out of the blue dedicated to the perimeter.
It wasn’t an ideal sport, however Indiana now has a real highway win. At the tip of the day, the margin of victory wsa sufficient to enhance the Hoosier’s analytical profile as properly, with Kenpom solely favoring Indiana by seven pregame.