NEW YORK - If he wasn’t named Yogi, Troy, James or Robert, he probably didn’t score for IU. Four players combined to score 83 points against Georgetown – the other six Hoosiers to take the floor scored just four.
Sophomore forward Collin Hartman made two free throws early in the first half and junior forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea tipped in a missed shot with 4.6 seconds remaining in overtime.
Nick Zeisloft didn’t score. Stanford Robinson didn’t score. Max Hoetzel was shut out. Emmitt Holt, too.
IU’s stars did all they could, but couldn’t get over the top. They needed help, and it didn’t come on Saturday.
After from junior guard Yogi Ferrell, sophomore forward Troy Williams and freshmen guards James Blackmon, Jr., and Robert Johnson, IU’s box score gets ugly: 1-of-11 from the field, 13 rebounds and four turnovers.
IU’s second wave of contributors didn’t get the job done in a 91-87 loss, and it usually does. IU entered Saturday receiving 36.2 points per game outside of Ferrell, Williams, Blackmon and Johnson.
IU Coach Tom Crean couldn’t explain it right away.
“We usually get really good production out of our bench,” Crean said. “I don’t know. I’ll have to go look at the film.”
While IU’s bench struggled to create anything, Georgetown’s thrived. The Hoya bench outscored the Hoosiers’ 24-2.
Much of that production came from backup forward Aaron Bowen, who scored a career-high 22 points off the bench. He had little trouble getting to the rim, where he had even less difficulty finishing, shooting 10-of-13 from the field.
That success often came in one-on-one situations with Mosquera-Perea, Holt or Hartman.
Crean said his concern lay primarily with the bench’s defensive performance, but with no statistics to measure defense, that’s an evaluation he’ll make through watching film.
“When we watch it I think we’re going to see we made some defensive mistakes off the bench,” Crean said.
He added that while IU’s bench performance wasn’t up to its usual standard, the burden lies on the entire team to find success.
“There’s always a point in time in the game when momentum is up for grabs, and there were numerous times in the game when you feel it, and it’s really bouncing back and forth. Somebody’s got to step up and grab it. That’s not a bench thing, that’s a team thing.”
