Just more than two minutes into the game, the IU men’s basketball team took the lead from Providence and never lost it the rest of the game.
The Hoosiers defeated the Friars, 79-58, on Monday in the Maui Invitational in Asheville, North Carolina, on a career day from junior forward Race Thompson, who recorded his first career double-double with 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Providence got on the board quickly after winning the tip-off and scoring on the opening possession. But the Friars wouldn’t score again for another three minutes.
The Hoosiers went on to score nine unanswered points.
While IU was led by its upperclassmen — with three scoring in double figures — the underclassmen still made a difference on the floor.
With 10 minutes to go in the first half, freshman guard Khristian Lander pushed the ball up the court and dished it off to fellow freshman Trey Galloway for a layup to put the Hoosiers up 17-9.
When senior guard Al Durham missed a corner 3-pointer a minute later, Thompson rebounded the ball and passed it to sophomore guard Armaan Franklin for another 3-point opportunity at the top of the key. Franklin missed, but sophomore forward Trayce Jackson-Davis grabbed the ball and scored to extend the Hoosiers’ lead.
IU pulled down 15 offensive rebounds to score 17 second-chance points during the game. Thompson accounted for more than half of the Hoosiers’ offensive rebounds with eight. Providence head coach Ed Cooley said he was flabbergasted by his team’s inability to rebound on the defensive end.
But IU head coach Archie Miller said he was more concerned with his team’s defensive rebounding.
“I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job there,” Miller said. “We were over a dozen guard rebounds, which is our goal for the game defensively, be able to get guard rebounds because we're a little smaller.”
The Hoosiers took advantage of their speed on the offensive end of the floor, too. Providence played in a 2-3 zone most of the game and heavily pressured the perimeter — despite IU only going 5-14 from 3-point range.
When the Friars came too far out, the Hoosiers sped past them to get closer looks in the lane and ended up scoring 36 of their 79 points in the paint.
IU forced nine turnovers in the first half, five of which came in the first six minutes of the game. The Hoosiers went into halftime with a 13-point lead.
Coming out of halftime, Durham started to heat up on the offensive end of the floor — scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half. Two minutes into the second half, he drove down the left side of the lane to finish at the rim for a completely uncontested layup.
A few minutes later, Durham hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Hoosiers up by 15 points.
“I think that you got a chance to see that our older guys brought confidence to the floor, that they have been there before,” Miller said.
With 12 minutes to go in the game, Galloway drove down the lane and his shot bounced off the back of the rim, but Thompson was there to tip it back in. Miller said Thompson had a monster effort in the game and was happy to see how he has developed over the last eight months.
“When people believe in you, it’s easy to shoot those shots and make them,” Thompson said.
The Hoosiers’ lead didn’t falter in the last 10 minutes and they pulled away for a 21-point victory. The team will move on in the Maui Invitational and play Texas at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“We beat a really good team and they're going to have a really good season,” Miller said. “And we get an opportunity to play another really good team tomorrow in Texas.”
