Sophomore forward Trayce Jackson-Davis held his right knee in pain as he went to the free-throw line with five minutes left in the game. He pulled it together to hit both free throws, putting the Hoosiers up 51-45, while freshman guard Trey Galloway ran to the scorer’s table to replace him. But Jackson-Davis didn’t let that happen.
“I’m good. Don’t take me out,” he said to IU head coach Archie Miller.
Jackson-Davis jumped up and down at half court as the limited crowd of fans rose to their feet, cheering for him.
“I just knew at this point in the game I could not come out,” he said.
He went on to score six more points to lead the IU men’s basketball team in a 63-55 win over Maryland. Jackson-Davis finished the game with a double-double — 22 points and 15 rebounds. This is now his 11th-straight game where he scored in double digits.
He didn't start the game that way.
After sophomore guard Armaan Franklin left the game with a rolled ankle just seven minutes into the game, the team needed Jackson-Davis to step up.
It wasn’t until just more than nine minutes into the game that Jackson-Davis scored his first points. Before then, he was 0-5 on field goals.
Jackson-Davis went up for layups expecting contact from a double team, and didn’t finish on his shots. He ended the first half with five points.
“I don’t think he could’ve played any weaker around the rim in the first half,” Miller said.
Junior guard Race Thompson got the Hoosiers back in the game after a five-minute scoring drought off a second-chance hook shot at 10:32 to end a 9-0 Maryland run.
Maryland switched to a zone defense, which allowed Jackson-Davis to get looks in the paint, but when the defense collapsed on him he didn’t have options to kick it out to for 3-pointers.
Related: [Big second half propels IU men’s basketball to 63-55 win over Maryland]
IU shot 0-9 from 3-point range and the bench added zero points. The team went into the locker room at halftime down 27-21.
“I think they work hard together, they play to win, they want to win,” Miller said. “When you go 0-9 from three in the first half it’s frustrating. Sometimes this team gets down on itself.”
But instead of getting down, players stepped up and kept shooting — and then their shots started to fall.
IU took back the lead from Maryland at the 10:43 mark when Thompson hit two free throws. It was the first time the Hoosiers had led since they were up 4-3 at 17:58 in the first half.
The Hoosiers outscored the Terrapins 42-28 in the second half, led by 17 points from Jackson-Davis.
“It was almost like a switch,” Jackson-Davis said. “In the first half we couldn’t do anything, we couldn’t score. In the second half we turned it up.”
On top of finding the basket, IU was able to pull away from Maryland by getting stops on the defensive end as well. IU held Maryland scoreless for more than six minutes in the second half.
The Hoosiers also dominated the boards. They grabbed 23 rebounds — 9 more than the Terrapins — in the final 20 minutes. And nine of those rebounds came from Jackson-Davis.
“The rebounding is huge,” Miller said. “When Race and Trayce rebound like that, offensively and defensively we’re a better team.”
Related: [Limiting fatigue the key for IU men’s basketball against Maryland]
With 1:53 left in the game, Jackson-Davis scored his 12th-consecutive point for the team on a layup to put the Hoosiers up by 10 points.
Despite his unimpressive first half, Jackson-Davis still managed to finish the game with a double-double. Miller said it was really a tale of two halves.
“Moving forward, hopefully we can get him in the first half a little bit earlier,” Miller said.
