Through three total Big Ten games, Indiana has two easy home wins against Penn State and Washington and an upset road loss at Minnesota, setting them at 2-1 in conference. The Hoosiers have played three squads that are no better than bubble teams.
Wednesday, Indiana faced off with Maryland who ranks one spot below Penn State in KenPom at 113 (17th in the conference) and looked for its first true road win all year. Indiana needed this win, desperately, against a 7-7 (0-3) Maryland team that was gasping for air.
It looked a little bleak at times, but a second-half Hoosier explosion led the way for a 84-66 IU victory.
“We know we didn’t maybe perform as well as we would have liked in those two (conference road) games,” head coach Darian DeVries said postgame. “There were also learning opportunities for us in those losses that I think we adjusted nicely too.”
In its first year under Buzz Williams, Maryland has dealt with a slew of injuries in the early going of the season, most notably Pharrel Payne, the best player who joined Williams in the transition from Texas A&M. The former Aggie and also Golden Gopher averages 17.5 points per game, but has only played 10 games.
Payne suffered the gruesome leg injury on Nov 15 against Marquette and reaggravated it against Michigan on Dec 13.
While Payne is a massive loss and frankly would pose a massive disadvantage for the Hoosiers, Maryland has some All-Conference level scoring on its roster. Kansas transfer David “Diggy” Coit, blue chip true freshman Darius Adams and another former Aggie Solomon Washington all average double digit points.
Again, Maryland would’ve had a favorable matchup down low with Payne, but had good enough scoring coming in. The Terps as a team came into Wednesday averaging 75 points per game.
The Terps started hot hitting four of its first six makes from the field and led after the first two media timeouts. A sluggish Hoosier offense that started just 4-of-15 (1-of-6 from 3-point range) remained in striking distance due to superb defense and a suddenly cold Terp offense. At the third media timeout Maryland was on about three minutes without a point, Indiana led 17-16.
That Terp point drought turned into a field goal drought as it picked up some points from the charity stripe from Washington and Elijah Saunders. The field goal drought ended with a mid-range jumper from Adams and a floater from Saunders. Then Indiana responded with a Tayton Conerway layup and 3-pointer. Indiana led 30-26 at the under-4 media timeout.
More than half of Indiana’s first-half offense came from the free-throw line where it made all 16 of its attempts in the opening frame. Conerway led Indiana with 13 points at the break where IU led 36-31. The Terrapins had a forgetful first half from beyond the arc making their first long ball with 31 seconds left in the opening half, but only trailed by five. That also tallied the team’s first assist of the game.
The second half started and both teams looked as efficient as they had in the first four minutes of the new period than the entirety of the previous period. Indiana had three 3-point makes in that period, two from Conor Enright and a 4-point play from Lamar Wilkerson. After the timeout, the first make for either team was another Wilkerson 3-pointer. Forty-eight seconds after the under-16, Williams called a timeout. Indiana led 52-40.
Wilkerson then proceeded to take the game over in the second half, eclipsing 20 points on an ankle breaking mid-range, a deep 3-point heat check and a layup. Wilkerson had 16 straight points for Indiana and finished with 24. A Tucker DeVries layup made it 61-46 at the under-12.
One possession after that timeout, Wilkerson, Conerway and Enright were at a combined 50 points. The three themselves led Maryland.
After that long run supercharged by Wilkerson, Maryland remained slow, as it did in the first half. The Hoosiers left them in the dust. The Terps were shorthanded from 7:08 on as Adams fouled out on a Trent Sisley shot attempt.
The Terps trailed by 17 at 71-54 when Adams departed. Maryland would only score 12 the rest of the way and Indiana coasted to the victory from there on.
If Indiana were to have lost this game, things would not be good. They would’ve lost to a sub 100 KenPom team without its best player in a very empty road arena.
But it didn’t, and Indiana avoided disaster and got its first road win of the season. Winning away from home in the Big Ten is one of the biggest asks in all of college basketball. Regardless of Payne’s absence and Adams’ early dismissal, Indiana picked up a quality win.
“We got off to a slow start tonight and I thought we took some of the things that maybe hindered us from coming away with a win in our first two road games and we were able to fix it,” DeVries said. “A sign of a veteran group.”
Next, Indiana will return home to take on 15-0 10th-ranked Nebraska at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. These two teams are eerily similar as they both want to beat you with the three ball. Of course, that would be one of the best wins in all of college basketball this season if Indiana were able to get it. That game will tip at noon on Saturday on Big Ten Network.
