BLOOMINGTON – IU dropped Wednesday’s visit from Nebraska, 85-70, marking the Hoosiers’ first three-game losing streak at home since Archie Miller’s final season in 2021.
Here are three reasons why:
DOYEL:For IU, the writing is on the wall. But Mike Woodson can’t see it — among other things.
INSIDER:IU is just a badly constructed team, waiting for frustrating season’s quiet end
First-half disaster
It would have been easier to count the things that went right for Indiana in the opening 20 minutes Wednesday, than the other way around.
Keisei Tominaga got something more than loose. Juwan Gary dialed in. As a team, Nebraska made nine 3s to IU’s one.
The Huskers came to Bloomington 0-7 in Big Ten road games and looked not at all fazed by a less-than-full Assembly Hall. They blitzed their hosts with frantic pace and a remarkable shot-making pace. Indiana staggered to the locker room down 51-31 at the break.
Furious rally
Indiana swung back hard to start the second half.
The Hoosiers silenced Tominaga, then Nebraska lost all sense of him within its offense. IU pounded the glass and finally found the 3-point line. Assembly Hall responded accordingly.
Already short on timeouts due to some first-half decisions, Huskers coach Fred Hoiberg tried to ride the momentum wave without using one, but he was eventually forced to.
Indiana cut the lead to as few as 3-points before the under-12 media timeout, their ascent into the game as rapid as their ugly first-half performance had been.
Fade out
In the end, the Hoosiers had left themselves too much to do.
They never found their collective 3-point shot, making just 4-of-21 as a team. They missed 10 free throws, a damning number and an outcome that’s becoming self-fulfilling with each passing game.
Indiana scored 25 points in the first 8 ½ minutes of Wednesday’s second half, and then just 14 the rest of the game. Woodson rode his starters plus C.J. Gunn off the bench, with virtually nothing behind them. He had to — those were his best lineups — but the compound fatigue of fighting from such a deep hole to begin with broke them down eventually.
Wednesday night looked like an embarrassing rout, then turned into a rousing comeback, only to end in the most nondescript of ways.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
Indiana basketball box score vs. Nebraska
NEBRASKA (19-8): Allick 3-7 0-1 7, Gary 6-12 1-5 15, Mast 1-5 0-0 2, Tominaga 8-15 0-0 20, Williams 6-10 4-4 18, Lawrence 6-8 2-2 19, Hoiberg 0-0 2-2 2, Wilcher 1-6 0-0 2. Totals 31-63 9-14 85.
INDIANA (14-12): Mgbako 7-17 6-7 22, Reneau 6-7 3-4 15, Ware 6-11 5-13 17, Cupps 0-6 0-0 0, Galloway 4-7 0-0 8, Gunn 2-10 0-0 6, Leal 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 26-61 14-24 70.
Halftime—Nebraska 51-31. 3-Point Goals_Nebraska 14-33 (Lawrence 5-5, Tominaga 4-9, Gary 2-4, Williams 2-6, Allick 1-3, Mast 0-2, Wilcher 0-4), Indiana 4-21 (Gunn 2-7, Mgbako 2-8, Leal 0-1, Reneau 0-1, Cupps 0-2, Galloway 0-2). Rebounds_Nebraska 34 (Allick, Gary, Williams, Lawrence 6), Indiana 35 (Ware 12). Assists_Nebraska 19 (Lawrence 5), Indiana 13 (Reneau 6). Total Fouls_Nebraska 18, Indiana 17.
First appeared on www.indystar.com