Mostly on the wrong side of the bubble entering tonight, Darian DeVries needed a win in Columbus to preserve Indiana men’s basketball’s chances of making an NCAA Tournament in his first year. The Hoosiers came up short, losing 91-78 to the tournament-bound Buckeyes.
Indiana was mostly kept out of this game because of their play on the defensive end, where the team looked completely unable to stop Ohio State.
The Buckeyes were led by Bruce Thornton, who finished with 25-points, making him the all-time
leading scorer in Ohio State history. He did most of his damage on drives, but also went 2-4 from 3-point range, part of a 3-point onslaught from the Buckeyes.
As a team, Ohio State went 11-24 (45.8%) from deep, outpacing an Indiana team that shot below its season average from 3-point range, going 5-18 (27.8%). Indiana actually outscored Ohio State by 10 points in the paint, but it didn’t matter against the Buckeyes’ perimeter offense.
Indiana was led by Lamar Wilkerson, who finished with 18 points on just two made threes. Tucker DeVries was right behind him with 17 points, going 1-7 from 3-point range, followed by Sam Alexis, who had 14 points on a perfect 5-5 from the field.
Besides the three ball not falling, Indiana struggled with turnovers on offense. It seemed like they wanted to create more looks for Alexis but struggled with persistent turnover issues. At the end of the day, Indiana just came up short one more time this season, once again in a game that could have secured it a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Now, the only path there is likely a Big Ten Tournament run.
