Grace underdogs put up fight in IU's exhibition debut

Nearly everyone has talked to junior guard Jeremiah Rivers about the dances he did while sitting out last season.

For 30 minutes Wednesday, he couldn’t find a rhythm. The timing was off. With about eight minutes left in the second half, Rivers found sophomore forward Tom Pritchard before putting in two dunks of his own in the open court.

His play set off a run for IU that ended with a 20-point lead and an eventual 96-73 victory for IU.

The Hoosiers continued to add separation in the second half, though the game had been close throughout as Grace College buried 3-point shots and challenged IU’s transition defense for easy layups.

The first half saw a team still growing as it was stunned in the opening minutes and couldn’t pull away from an NAIA team projected to finish sixth in its conference. It took them nearly 30 minutes before they could capture a lead of eight points.

“We knew that we were going to be pushed because of how well Grace runs their offense,” IU coach Tom Crean said. “Our players might have been a little surprised.”
It seemed that Grace College would be the victor for a moment.

The Lancers challenged IU in every respect and overpowered the young Hoosiers on many occasions. But where Grace really seemed to control the game was with its shooting – until late in the first half.

As the game wore on, the shots that fell for Grace in the first half slowly began to roll out of the rim. IU started to pick up its pace, and made the touch layups its more physically imposing players missed in the first half.

Grace coach Jim Kessler said the outside shot can be the equalizer no matter whom the opponent is on the opposite side of the court.

“We shot the ball well early,” he said. “If you shoot the ball you can be with anybody.”
The IU team had been hampered with injury during the week leading up to its first exhibition game. The players struggled to find chemistry on the court because of it. It didn’t help that five new freshman were playing their first collegiate game.

“I thought they were unselfish, I thought they really moved the ball well, and I didn’t think we took any arrogant shots,” Crean said. “I thought they really tried to
understand how to get into the bonus and how to play once we were in the bonus.”

But it wasn’t always pretty. There were flashes from the freshmen and elder players.

Freshman forward Derek Elston made a spin-move before putting in a layup, freshman guard Jordan Hulls threw a no-look pass halfway down the court and freshman forward Christian Watford scored from multiple spots on the floor.

But it finally broke through with key defensive plays by Rivers and sophomore guard Verdell Jones that led to a double-digit lead against the less-talented Grace College.

“We did a great job at getting stops and got some key turnovers that pushed us over the edge,” Watford said.

The 6-foot-9 forward had just finished scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He was followed by Hulls with 14 points, and Rivers and Pritchard with 12. Jones also scored 10 points.

The road to those points wasn’t always easy, though it wasn’t for a lack of opportunity.
The Hoosiers had many clear shots at the basket but many players seemed to still be working out kinks on the court during the game.

Kessler sat on the opposite bench, but said from his view the Hoosiers were “as young as you can be.”

“Youth has to mature and has to grow,” he said. “You don’t grow until you get on the court. You can talk all you want about practice and show video tape until you’re blue in the face, but you have to be on the court and play, and learn together.”