Indiana men’s basketball recovered from a slow start to Friday’s game at Nebraska, and hung in with the Cornhuskers for most of the contest.
The Hoosiers trailed by just one point with 6:51 remaining in Lincoln. But that just set the table for a total collapse, as Nebraska closed the game on a 17-1 run from there. It rode that stretch to an 85-68 victory.
Indiana (8-3, 1-1 Big Ten) had trouble on defense for much of the night, as Nebraska (7-2, 1-1) shot 61 percent from the field. IU defensive lapses helped the Huskers build their lead early in the game, and it led to the decisive run at the end.
“We had no defensive presence to start the game,” IU head coach Mike Woodson said after the game. “And that’s something that we’ve just got to keep working to get it fixed, because — especially on the road — it’s tough on the road in the Big Ten, and you got to establish yourself from a defensive standpoint.”
The Hoosiers had to alter their game plan almost immediately after tip-off, as Mackenzie Mgbako picked up two fouls in the first minute of the game. That had an undeniably huge impact on the first half, and could’ve been the difference in the game. IU attempted 35 3-pointers on Friday, its most ever under Woodson. But Mgbako, one of the team’s better outside shooters, took only one of those threes because he played just 13 minutes.
But it’s what happened at the end of the game that will make Indiana particularly regretful. The team missed its last 12 field-goal attempts, while allowing the Huskers to close the night going 5 for 8 in the same timespan.
“It’s a (close) ballgame with five, six (minutes) on the clock, and we just let it get away,” Woodson said. “And that’s just something that we got to work on, because I think when we keep putting ourselves in that position, we’ll have an opportunity to break through and win.”
Brice Williams averaged 18.7 points per game in Nebraska’s three wins over IU last year, and he crushed the Hoosiers yet again. IU couldn’t stop Williams, who put up 30 points, six rebounds, and five assists on Friday. He scored seven points in the final six minutes of the game, leading the charge for the Huskers to put the win away.
Offensively, Myles Rice did all he could to keep Indiana in the game. The sophomore finished with 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, and he carried the team during a few stretches of play.
But it wasn’t enough. He didn’t get enough help.
It’s one thing to lose games like these; a quad-one game on the road, within the Big Ten, can be a tough spot. But IU let this game spiral out of control at the end, and the final score resembles a blowout more than the close game it was for 35 minutes. Allowing the margin to balloon like that hurts Indiana’s résumé — it makes this loss look worse than it actually was.
It’s not the first time the Hoosiers have let something like that happen, either with a loss going from bad to worse (Louisville) or with a win that was closer than it should’ve been (UNC Greensboro). And it’s a clear sign that the team needs to clean some things up.
“We kind of took a couple shots that probably were out of rhythm, and we didn’t defend how we should have down the stretch. That’s a recipe for disaster when you put both of those together,” Rice said. “So we’ve just got to be better going down the stretch, and continue to play as a team and just be better.”
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