Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis recorded the third triple-double in IU basketball history on Wednesday night against Nebraska in an 81-65 Indiana win.
The senior forward poured in 12 points, and added 11 rebounds and 10 assists to hit the marks. He already had 9 points and 8 rebounds at halftime, but had to make up ground in the assist column with just four at the break.
IU head coach Mike Woodson pulled Jackson-Davis from the game with 6:33 remaining, still two assists shy of the triple-double. When he exited Indiana had an 18 point lead, and it was conceivable Jackson-Davis’ night was finished.
But the Hoosiers let the lead slip back down to a 14-point margin with under five minutes remaining, and Woodson put his star big man back in the game.
Indiana positioned Jackson-Davis at the top of the offense, seemingly in an effort to help him find open teammates. Tamar Bates hit a wing 3-pointer with 2:29 remaining to give Jackson-Davis assist number nine.
Both Xavier Johnson and Trey Galloway missed shots with less than two minutes remaining that would have given Jackson-Davis the tenth assist earlier.
But Jackson-Davis found a cutting Trey Galloway under the basket with 1:22 remaining to clinch the triple-double.
HISTORY. 🙌@TrayceJackson has just the 3️⃣rd triple-double in @IndianaMBB program history. 😱 pic.twitter.com/p4cnAtmdkU
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) December 8, 2022
“They did a great job, and just getting the ball and especially Miller (Kopp), Scoop (Bates), Trey (Galloway) hitting big shots after big shots and then Race (Thompson) and Scoop cutting to the basket,” Jackson-Davis said after the game when asked about his unselfishness against Nebraska double-teams.
Galloway had a career high 20 points including four 3-pointers playing off of all the attention focused on Jackson-Davis.
“I think him just being able to pass out of the double and make plays for others has been really special for us and our group,” Galloway said. “I think we’ve got to continue to make shots when he’s getting double-teamed because they’ve got to leave us to go get him, so if we’re open we’ve got to knock them down, and then they can’t double, and he goes to work.”
Woodson said he didn’t address the rare accomplishment in the post-game locker room.
“I never once addressed it at all. It’s a part of our game,” Woodson said.
“When I took this job a year and a half ago and sat down with Trayce and watched him on film and critiqued his game, there’s not a lot he can’t do. No, he’s not shooting jump shots. I get all of that. But he’s shown in practice he can make them. He’s just got to shoot them in the game.
“But he’s skilled enough to do the things that he’s doing on the floor, and the fact that he’s been double- and triple-teamed, he’s got to sacrifice the ball. There’s nowhere to go with the ball but to get it out and try to find open shooters.”
The Greenwood, Ind. product joins Juwan Morgan and Steve Downing as the only other Hoosiers to accomplish the statistical feat.
On February 23, 1971, Downing scored 28 points, and grabbed 17 rebounds and added 10 blocks to record the first ever triple double in IU basketball history.
Morgan became the second Hoosier to do it with a symmetrical 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a victory over Jacksonville on Dec. 22, 2018.
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