With stifling defense and dominant rebounding, No. 6 IU raced past Liberty by a final of 87-48 on Saturday night in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The Hoosiers (3-0) victory over the Flames (1-2), was never in doubt after the first half blowout.
IU out-rebounded Liberty 32 to seven in the opening 20 minutes, and the Flames shot just one of 17 from three in that span. With a 24-0 run in the middle of the half, IU was able to put the game on ice early.
Junior guard James Blackmon Jr. led IU in scoring with 20 points on five of 10 shooting from deep, and added nine rebounds. He turned the ball over five times, but IU Coach Tom Crean said Blackmon’s positives outweighed his negatives.
“He impacted the game,” Crean said. “He made up for the turnovers and he defended at a very good rate. You want to find a way to impact the game and overcome those mistakes, and I thought he did that.”
With only three players on their roster taller than 6-foot-7, the Flames were never likely to give IU much of a challenge down low. Liberty missed 45 shots in the game and was only able to pull down five offensive rebounds. The Hoosiers won the overall rebounding battle 55-20.
“We established that we were going to be aggressive and get to the glass,” Crean said. “That was the biggest thing to me, that our rebound numbers had to go up.”
Crean said his team was also focused on pressuring Liberty’s perimeter shooters, and the Hoosiers clearly did an effective job of that as the Flames shot just five of 27 from deep.
No player for Liberty hit double digits in the points column as senior guard Ray Chen led the Flames with eight points. Liberty’s leading scorer entering the game was senior guard John Dawson, but he made just one of seven attempts from the field and tallied only two points.
It was far from a perfect game for IU on the offensive end, though the Hoosiers did shoot nearly 61 percent from the field. The Hoosiers turned the ball over 26 times, including 17 in the first half.
Sophomore forward OG Anunoby notched a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, and junior guard Robert Johnson added 13 points.
Overall, Crean said he was happy with the way his team succeeded in most facets of the game, but particularly on defense. After allowing 42 second-half points in their win over UMass Lowell on Wednesday, Crean said IU was focused on playing a full, 40-minute game.
“We were committed to the glass, and we got off to a great start,” Crean said. “We wanted to get off to a good, physical tough start. I thought the way we played from start to finish was aggressive.”
