What is the story about?
Indiana
men’s basketball moved to 2-1 in the Big Ten with a 90-80 win over Washington on Sunday night at Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
The Hoosiers had their share of issues, namely keeping the Huskies from scoring or drawing fouls on the perimeter, but ended up scoring enough points in the last four minutes to just win the game by double digits. There were a few hiccups that made things a bit uncomfortable down the stretch, but Indiana did enough to win.
Here’s five things we learned:
- Tayton Conerway’s aggression can be a boon for this Indiana team when he picks the right spots. Washington wasn’t able to contain him when he had the ball in his hands and he just kept getting to the rim, either scoring or drawing a foul once he got there. He finished with 20 points, but 18 came in the first half as the ball went away from him in the second. He won’t go 4-4 from deep too much this season, but he chose a good game to do so.
- Trent Sisley gives Indiana something off the bench, scoring 10 points on 4-6 shooting from the field in 15 minutes. He gave Washington’s defense fits with movement away from the ball and 3-point shooting, hitting 2-3 from distance.
- Nick Dorn gives Indiana some of the same, scoring 8 points on 3-4 shooting from the field in 22 minutes. Indiana’s going to need both of them to have performances like that this season to have a decent finish in the Big Ten standings.
- The frontcourt had its issues scoring, with Reed Bailey and Sam Alexis combining for 12 points on 5-10 shooting from the field. Indiana isn’t asking either to do much anywhere but the rim, so 50% isn’t a good enough number. Indiana’s gonna keep having those issues this season but has to find ways to get them some better shots.
- Mistake-free basketball will lead Indiana to wins like this all season. The Hoosiers dished out 16 assists to four turnovers, with Conor Enright owning nine of those assists and none of those turnovers. Indiana’s gotta keep the ball moving and be multiple on offense to keep scoring like this.
