There was no room for jet lag or tired legs for the Hoosiers Monday night. Coming off a week in the Bahamas at the Battle for Atlantis tournament, the Hoosiers faced the Sam Houston Bearkats on Dec 2 in Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers came into this game after dropping two of three games during November's Feast Week. However, they seemed to course-correct, and ended up dominating the Bearkats with a final score of 97-71.
Plenty of players excelled in the scoring category; Myles Rice led the team with a season high of 19 points on 9-12 shooting after combining for just 11 in the three games in the Bahamas. Forward Malik Reneau also had a massive game, recording an 18 and 10 double-double.
However, the Hoosier giving the most intriguing support was forward Luke Goode, who tallied 18 off the bench and hit 5 three-pointers. Goode is a potential solution to the Indiana shooting woes they’ve had for the past several years under coach Mike Woodson. If he is consistently able to come off the bench and sink deep shots, he will be a huge weapon come Big Ten and post season time.
Turnovers have held the Hoosiers back all year, and last night seemed to be a step in the right direction. Indiana came into the game averaging 14 points per game and combining for 45 total over the 3-game span last week. Last night they gave it away 12 times, but only 3 of those came in the second half. It’s impossible to eliminate turnovers entirely, but the second half stat is going to be a trend Indiana will want to establish.
Sam Houston came into this game as a heavy underdog, getting 13.5 points on the road. They were a team that seemed to potentially be dangerous against Indiana, coming into the game shooting 40% from deep on the court as a team, led by Lamar Wilkerson, who averages 19.6 points per game. If you combine those two things, along with the fact that Indiana has struggled to take care of the ball, that gives you a pretty good recipe for an upset.
This was not the case for Monday night's game.
Indiana’s size down low was too much for the Bearkats to handle. The Bearkats went down by 22 points early in the first half after allowing a 25-3 run by the Hoosiers. After scrapping the lead down to 17 points at halftime, the Bearkats came out of the locker room with a powerful energy and cut the lead all the way down to only 9 points. The game turned for good when Wilkerson picked up his fourth foul and was forced to sit for about 12 minutes. Indiana became too much to handle, and the Bearkats were blown away. Sam Houston fell 4-5 on this young season and will travel back home to take on Texas Southern Saturday evening.
The Hoosiers moved to 6-2 and 5-0 against quad 4 opponents. They will play host to Miami (OH) this Friday night in Assembly Hall as the last tune up game before a pair of games in Big Ten play.
