Hoosiers bailed out by bench in team’s final exhibition game

Their regular season doesn’t begin until Saturday, but the Hoosiers have already had to grind out a win at home.

With their starters off-key in the team’s final tune-up, IU needed a second-half run and a strong showing from its bench to pull away from Division II school Bemidji State, eventually winning 72-54.

In a game that was far more competitive than the Hoosier’s exhibition 103-71 win last Friday against Anderson, IU coach Tom Crean said he saw his team struggle.

“If we don’t play with tremendous energy and heartfelt passion and attack on defense ... we’re not going to be in many games,” he said. 

With his starting lineup falling flat, the first-year coach relied heavily on his bench. The starting trio of junior Devan Dumes and freshmen Tom Pritchard and Verdell Jones combined to shoot 8-of-31 from the floor. 

“There was a drastic difference in the energy between the starters and the subs,” Crean said, citing his backcourt “didn’t bring it at a high level.”

The Hoosiers led 37-26 going into halftime but were caught off guard when the Beavers opened the second half with a 10-0 run.

That’s when IU’s bench, led by senior forward Kyle Taber and freshmen Daniel Moore and Malik Story, picked up the slack.

Story finished with a game-high 15 points and Taber, in his first game back from a knee injury, finished with four points and nine rebounds in 15 minutes .

“I felt pretty good,” Taber said, who admitted he was a little nervous at first. “Everyone who came off the bench tonight did very well, brought energy and emotion to the game. That’s what Coach is looking for.”

The spark plug of the night was Moore, who was one of the players Crean singled out as a “defensive catalyst.”

Still playing with a mask over his broken nose, Moore pressured the ball with relentless fervor in his 18 minutes of play and helped energize a relatively quiet Assembly Hall crowd.

“Coach Crean has told me my role is three things: talk, be a pest on defense and be able to run the club from the point,” Moore said. “As long as I do those three things, I feel like I’m doing what I need to do.”

The 5-foot-11 walk-on, known for his hustling defense, has been compared by many to former IU guard Errek Suhr, who Moore calls a role model.

“I’m not as good as him yet,” Moore said. “I think if I can do the things he’s done for IU, I’ll have a successful career.”

The Hoosiers struggled offensively Tuesday night, shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 17-of-29 (58.6 percent) from the charity stripe. 

Bemidji State coach Matt Bowen, a former IU student manager under Bob Knight, said despite IU’s early shortcomings, he thinks the team can turn things around quickly.

“Coach Crean is going to grind it out and find a way to put the players in the best position he can,” Bowen said. “He’s going to find a way to keep guys in games.”

Crean said there are several areas the Hoosiers will address before playing in their season-opener against Northwestern State on Saturday, including improving his team’s energy level.

“Energy is going to be king,” he said. “We’ve got to win the hustle game all the time. We have got no way around it. It’s going to be a lesson learning year, and we learned (our first one) tonight.”