IU men’s basketball’s lost its Big Ten opener 74-67 to Northwestern on Wednesday despite coming back from a 15-point first half deficit.
Turnovers, poor free throw shooting and offensive inefficiency got the Hoosiers down early. IU gave up 20 points off turnovers and shot just 62.5% from the free throw line against Northwestern.
“We’re too sloppy right now,” IU head coach Archie Miller said. “We have too many plays that aren’t going to work for us moving forward in this league. We can’t turn the ball over 16 times at home.”
IU scored off the opening tip with a layup from sophomore forward Trayce-Jackson Davis, but junior forward Miller Kopp hit two 3-pointers during the next four minutes of play to give Northwestern the 8-7 lead heading into the first timeout.
Later in the half, the Wildcats went on an 8-0 run in two minutes to extend the lead to 27-15 going into the under-eight minute media timeout.
With 5:45 left in the first half, freshman guard Trey Galloway picked off sophomore center Ryan Young’s pass and pushed it in transition. But Galloway turned the ball over and gave up a layup on the other end of the floor.
“We’re making the same mistakes over and over again,” Miller said.
Galloway finally found the basket and sank a 3-pointer at the 2:24 mark. Then after a scoreless possession for Northwestern, sophomore guard Armaan Franklin made a floater in the lane on the fast break to cut the deficit to seven points.
IU went into halftime down 37-28.
The Hoosiers came out of the locker room hot, starting the second half on a 8-0 run to cut the lead to one point. Northwestern called a timeout at the 17:56 mark while up 37-36.
Coming out of the timeout, the Wildcats continued to give the ball away — tallying six turnovers in the first four minutes of the half. Northwestern scored its first points of the half when sophomore guard Boo Buie made a 3-pointer with 16:23 on the clock.
IU found its groove on the offensive end of the court, but couldn’t hold off Northwestern on defense. The Hoosiers would cut the lead to two points, but then give them right back on the other end of the floor.
“You do that against a good team, you get beat,” Jackson-Davis said.
It wasn’t until the 12:51 mark when Franklin made a fast break layup off a Northwestern turnover to tie the game at 47-47.
On Northwestern’s next possession, junior forward Pete Nance turned the ball over on a travel, leading to a 3-pointer from Franklin from the corner to take back the lead from Northwestern.
Hoosier fans rose to their feet, and and young kids jumped up and down with excitement.
But from the 10:11 mark to the 5:32 mark, Northwestern went on a 12-4 run.
“I thought we were ready to play,” Jackson-Davis said. “On the defensive end we let them get some easy buckets, so that hurt us.”
Jackson-Davis hit a driving layup to cut the deficit to two at 65-63 with just under three minutes to go, but the Hoosiers couldn't stop the Wildcats on the other end of the floor. Despite contesting every jump shot, Northwestern’s shots kept finding the bottom of the net.
When IU was down five points with under a minute left in the game, Thompson took the ball up for a layup, but a jump ball was called instead, with the possession arrow favoring Northwestern.
Junior guard Rob Phinisee knocked down two free throws to cut the deficit to three points with 30 seconds left, but that’s the closest the Hoosiers would get to catching the Wildcats before they fell 74-67.
Miller said his team has a quick turnaround with practice at 9 a.m. Thursday and a bus ride to Champaign, Illinois, on Christmas for its game against Illinois on Saturday.
