Thoughts on an 80-73 loss in double OT for the Badgers:
Indiana, who played without his best perimeter in Armaan Franklin, gave Wisconsin absolutely everything he could handle tonight in Madison. This game was there to be. At the end of the regulation, Trayce Jackson-Davis got a good look to the left of the edge that could have been the match winner, but it did not go down. And in the first overtime, Indiana had the ball with seven seconds left and tied the game, just ahead of Al Durham Jr. to lose possession in a springboard with Brad Davison finally hitting the game in a second overtime.
From there, in a game that was so tough, and no team led by more than three points over the last five minutes of regulation and the first overtime, Wisconsin was able to break it open on a few three-pointers from Tyler Wahl. . It sank the Hoosiers forever.
Things looked shaky when the Hoosiers were down 11-11 in the first half with 6:48. But Indiana finished the half on a 13-6 run to drop a substantial five points (29-24) at halftime. Anthony Leal, in his best game as a Hoosier, knocked down two three-pointers in that piece to give the Hoosiers a boost. Indiana has given Wisconsin defensive trouble for all its offensive problems to start this one. It held a top-10 offense at the national level to 0.94 points per possession, and it looks like the Badgers are coming out of their comfort zone with a lot of switching.
Indiana turned things around really offensively in the second half – which is a theme at this point in the season – by finding Trayce Jackson-Davis in space. As we have seen so often this season, Jackson-Davis was unstoppable for a while in the second half, and the Badgers had no answers. The Center Grove product scored 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the second half. Indiana was also able to get contributions from its premierships again, as Al Durham and Rob Phinisee both scored seven points in the second half. Jerome Hunter made five of his own contributions, including a big blow with 41 seconds left to set up the Hoosiers 61-59.
But D’mitrik Trice (21 points) was able to get a bucket on the other side to tie it up, one of the many tough key shots he struck for Wisconsin when it mattered, and we know how it went from there expired. Hat Trice tonight. Big buckets were his thing.
It’s a loss and one that stings. But it was a great, bad performance by the Hoosiers against one of the better teams in the country – and perhaps the best team in the Big Ten. It was there to be. It just did not happen. There are many more challenges against teams that are close to the level of Wisconsin – Michigan, Iowa, Illinois. If the Hoosiers can increase their game to this level and do so consistently, they will get something to break against a better team during the grueling season in the Big Ten.
Filed to: Wisconsin Badgers