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Indiana recorded its 10th win of the season and fifth win in the Big Ten game on Sunday afternoon at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Fueled by solid games from Race Thompson and Trayce Jackson-Davis, solid play from his freshmen and late shooting from Rob Phinisee and Armaan Franklin, the Hoosiers finished a sweep of the season with a 67- win. 65 over Iowa.
The win, Indiana’s third to fall in Quad 1 in the NCAA NET rankings, shattered a two-game losing streak. Here are five takeaways from the victory over the Hawkeyes:
• Indiana locks Iowa again: For the second time this season, the Indiana defense ended the nation’s most effective offense.
In Iowa City, Indiana limited the Hawkeyes to just 1.01 points per possession in an 81-69 win. On Sunday afternoon, the Hoosiers were even better, keeping Iowa just 0.957 points per possession in a 67-65 victory. Points per possession and 65 were both the lowest this season for the Hawkeyes.
Indiana held Luka Garza, who was benched for much of the first half with two fouls, just 6 of 14 shots from the field. Garza didn’t get any offensive rebounds.
“You really have to make it look different,” Race Thompson said of UI’s plan against Garza. “He’s a great player, so I mean you have to really focus on giving him different looks and not really letting him feel you, and really focusing on trying not to let him take the ball in the first place. . “
Jordan Bohannon managed to hit three from 3 points, but was only 3 of 9 on the field. The Iowa bench combined to shoot 0 of 12 from the field and scored just five points.
• After struggling all day, Phinisee and Franklin go big on the stretch: It was a calm afternoon for Rob Phinisee and Armaan Franklin until the last two minutes.
Phinisee turned around on a poor post-feed at 3:34 and Iowa tied the game at 57 on the next possession. Until he hit a 3-point clutch with 1:39 remaining, Phinisee was 0 of 7 on the pitch and was scoreless.
“He held on, didn’t have his best outing, didn’t have his best week,” Archie Miller said. “But I thought he had a good end to the game.”
Franklin didn’t make his first basket until the 5:05 mark of the second half, but Indiana put the ball in their hands with the game tied at 65 with less than 30 seconds to go. Franklin rewarded that confidence by delivering a dagger with less than two seconds to go to take the Hoosiers to a 2-point victory.
“They believe in us, you know; we’re going to hit the big time, ”Franklin said. “So it wasn’t really about trust. You have to go out there and keep shooting because everyone trusts you and they are going to hand the ball back to you in those moments.
• Hoosiers turn Iowa’s turnovers into scoring opportunities and win points battle: Iowa entered Sunday’s game with the Big Ten’s best turnover percentage at 13.2.
Indiana forced Iowa to achieve 11 turnovers for a 16.2 turnover percentage, the third highest score of the season for the Hawkeyes. More importantly, Indiana scored 17 points on Iowa’s turnovers. Iowa has only scored five points on nine Indiana turnovers.
Indiana also tallied 15 offensive rebounds and scored 11 second chance points against just six offensive rebounds and six second chance points for Iowa.
“The 11 turnovers that led to 17 points were problematic,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. “And 15 offensive rebounds. Our defense was good, but they recovered too much.
• Thompson offers strong offensive power to go along with a stellar defense on Garza: In addition to his strong defensive effort on National Player of the Year, frontrunner Luka Garza, Race Thompson presented another scoring game after scoring 18 points in Tuesday’s loss to Illinois.
Thompson’s 15 points were second on the team behind Trayce Jackson-Davis (18 points) and he was 5 of 10 on the field and 5 of 7 on the free throw line.
The Minnesota native also played his third game of the season with four blocked shots and now sits fourth in the conference with a 6.06 blocking percentage against opponents in the conference. Only Myles Johnson, Liam Robbins, and Jackson-Davis have better block percentage than Thompson in the Big Ten games.
“He does everything for us,” Miller explained. “The fact that he’s playing well for me right now gives us great confidence that he’s become a real leader. Of all the players I have known, I’m not sure I have known a guy who has evolved more from the first day he arrived on campus until today. Not even as a player, as a person. He really grew, matured, became a leader. He does everything for us and he doesn’t say anything about it.
• The bench offers enormous lift at the end of the first half: Iowa looked like they were on the verge of breaking the game by creating double-digit leads more than once in the first half.
After the Hawkeyes led 27-18 to a 3-point Joe Wieskamp with 4:22 left in the first half, Anthony Leal and Khristian Lander helped change the direction of the game.
Leal had a pair of 3 points in the 3:08 half final and Lander also had a 3 point and got a steal that led to a Trayce Jackson-Davis dunk to help the Hoosiers claim a lead of 33-31 at halftime.
Each of Indiana’s four freshmen contributed statistically, as Jordan Geronimo added six points and Trey Galloway hit a whopping 3 points in the second half.
“Accessories for young guys,” said Thompson. “They put it into practice every day. Even when they weren’t getting the minutes they wanted, they brought them in every day, and that just shows the work they put in day in and day out.
Filed at: Iowa Hawkeyes
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