Indiana men’s basketball got punched in the face Thursday night, metaphorically and somewhat literally, in the first half against Tennessee Tech.
Tobin Anderson’s group is one of the smallest in the country, something Indiana appeared poised to take full advantage of early. The Hoosiers got out to a 6-0 lead behind three straight layups from Samet Yigitoglu, whose sheer size was too much for the Golden Eagles to handle.
Then Yigitoglu took an inadvertant shot to the face, one that drew blood and brought
him off the floor, and things came to a grinding halt for Indiana. The Hoosiers went over three minutes without scoring, during which time Tennessee Tech clawed its way back to make it a one-score game.
This was largely the story of the first half, with Tennessee Tech even grabbing the lead on two separate occassions as Indiana struggled to figure out how to deal with the Golden Eagles’ full-court press. Darian DeVries’ group built a lead a few times, but Anderson’s team played well enough that you had to wonder if he just has a thing against schools from the state of Indiana.
Yigitoglu was able to check back into the game for Indiana in the first half, but not soon enough to make things comfortable heading into the break. After the first 20 minutes, Indiana led by just four.
The second half looked like it was off to a similar start, but the early involvement of Markus Burton and Darren Harris – Indiana’s leading scorers from the win over Syracuse – was a sign of things to come. The duo was held scoreless in the first half before finishing for a combined 16 points and nine assists.
Indiana’s defense also tightened up in the second half, surrendering just 29 points after a 37-point first half. This included cleaning up the glass, turning around a surprising 21-18 rebounding deficit at halftime into a 41-35 lead for Indiana by the end of the game.
By the final whistle, six different Hoosiers hit double-digits in the scoring column, rounding out a team effort that was strong enough to overlook a shaky first half.
