Indiana men’s basketball eked out an 83-80 win over Syracuse on Monday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to move to 3-0 on the season.
My condolences to any Hoosier fans hoping for a relatively stress-free evening. Neither team built a lead in this one and it stayed competitive for all 40 minutes. The Hoosiers struggled scoring consistently on offense while letting up some timely points to Syracuse to keep from pulling away.
Here’s a few stats that stuck out from the matchup:
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19 points, Ryan Moesch
Ryan Moesch, a freshman point guard for the Orange and a former 4-star prospect per 247Sports, entered this game having scored just six points on the season, all of which came against Central Connecticut.
He finished tonight’s game with a team-leading 19 points, going 6-13 from the field, 3-5 from 3-point range and dishing out six assists. He also held up well on the defensive end, including a play where he pressured Bryce Lindsay into a turnover.
You can’t say he came out of nowhere, he was a decently highly rated prospect, but, man, he was pivotal and nearly won it for Syracuse at the end by drawing a foul on Lindsay to regain possession down 3.
6 points, Aiden Sherrell
Aiden Sherrell, on the other hand, finished with way too quiet of a night as one of the Hoosiers’ prized signings out of the transfer portal this past offseason.
Sherrell got into early foul trouble, picking up a pair just a few minutes into the game, and never quite got back into it from there. He didn’t pick up any more fouls but attempted just a pair of shots in 18 minutes, both made 3-pointers, while bringing down just a single rebound.
Indiana can’t really get that kind of production out of Sherrell and expect to do well. He’s meant to be key to this team’s identity as a rebounding unit and he managed just one despite being on the floor for nearly half of the game.
One way or another, he needs to find ways to be more impactful.
37 rebounds for Indiana, 28 for Syracuse
Went into this one in a different blog, but Indiana’s rebounding showed up when the Hoosiers needed it most with a 9-point margin in the box score that proved critical when this remained a close game right up until the final shot.
Samet Yigitoglu led the way with 10 rebounds, but had a few taken out of his hands and could’ve been stronger on the glass despite that total. Jaeden Mustaf was excellent, flying in for seven rebounds to be the second leader on the team.
Indiana’s going to need to stick to its identity to get where it wants to go this season. That starts on the glass.
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