Indiana men’s basketball drops its third straight Big Ten game and falls below .500 in conference play.
Indiana men’s basketball dropped its third consecutive game, falling below .500 in Big Ten play today with a home loss to an Iowa team that entered the game on a three game skid of its own.
The loss brings Darian DeVries to 1-2 against other first-year Big Ten coaches, with the lone win coming on the road at Maryland.
This afternoon’s game started a lot like the Maryland game, with both teams largely refusing to score over the first ten minutes of the game. Indiana didn’t make its second field goal of the night until Conor Enright knocked down a 3-pointer with 12:39 to play in the first half, making it a 10-5 Iowa lead.
Once the pace picked up, things got more lopsided for Indiana. The teams traded buckets for much of the final ten minutes of the first half, Indiana led by Tayton Conerway’s ability to get to the rim, but the Hoosiers could not get the stops that would have allowed them to overcome their slow start to the game.
Down just ten at half, Indiana had plenty of chances to claw its way back into the game over the final twenty minutes.
Some inspired drives from Conerway and Lamar Wilkerson brought Indiana within striking range a couple of times, but, again, the defense was not there to help out. Easy buckets, fouls, and offensive rebounds allowed Iowa to maintain a healthy lead throughout Indiana’s surge, then expand the lead as the game went on.
When Conerway left the game with an ankle injury, Indiana’s hopes of winning were effectively dashed. The Indiana offense stalled without him.
Conerway came back into the game, a good sign that his injury wasn’t serious, and finished as Indiana’s leading scorer with 16 points. Wilkerson was the only other Hoosier to reach double digits, ending the night with just 13, well below his season average.
Ben McCollum’s team was going to be defense-first, but this is now three straight opponents that have figured out how to stop DeVries’ offense for significant portions of the game. The Hoosiers find themselves searching for a reset on that end before heading to Michigan (editor’s note: oh no) on Tuesday.
Category: General Sports
