After dribbling off a screen from junior Race Thompson at the top of the key, junior guard Rob Phinisee peaked around his defender before lobbing the ball towards the rim. On the other end of the lob, sophomore forward Trayce Jackson-Davis skied through the air before slamming down the alley-oop with two hands for the Hoosiers’ first points of the night as they went on to defeat the Golden Gophers 82-72.
Head coach Archie Miller spent most of his press conference Tuesday talking about the team’s string of slow starts and how important it was for IU to come out of the gates strong Wednesday.
Miller said part of the reason behind the team’s struggles at the beginning of games had been due to misses from Jackson-Davis. Against Minnesota, Jackson-Davis was aggressive early, decisive with his initial post moves and getting to the bucket with ease.
Just as Miller predicted, the Hoosiers’ confidence rose with each early bucket from Jackson-Davis as the star forward scored on the team’s first three shot attempts. In the opening minutes, IU drove the ball with purpose and spent a lot less time passing around the perimeter and instead attacked Minnesota’s defense with straight-line drives.
“Offensively we were pretty efficient when we didn't turn it over,” Miller said after the game. “We got good shots and we made some tonight, which was good.”
After the fast start it had been desperately looking for, IU’s offense came to a screeching halt at the end of the first half.
The Hoosiers have used big scoring runs to close out the first half as a means of survival for much of Big Ten play after often falling behind early, but against the Golden Gophers, they finished with a 2:06 scoring drought.
The beginning of the second half closely resembled the game script from the opening 20 minutes.
The Hoosiers were aggressive coming out of the locker room, looking to their forwards inside and finding open shooters on kick-outs from the low post.
With just over 13 minutes remaining in the game, junior forward Jerome Hunter set a screen for freshman guard Khristian Lander at the top of the key. Hunter popped off the screen and spotted up from beyond the arc, Lander passed it back to him and yelled “bang bang!” as the ball flew through the air.
As the ball fell through the bucket, capping off a 13-1 IU run, Lander celebrated with a sweeping fist pump while Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino called timeout.
“[Jerome’s] playing very confident. He's playing very hard. He's playing very physical,” Miller said. “He's playing like he's practicing right now. He's playing to win. He's got great confidence in his shot, he's not hesitating and he's playing through mistakes.”
Minnesota would respond with a 9-1 run of its own to tie the game at 55, as IU went the next five minutes without making a shot.
With seven minutes remaining senior guard Al Durham would break the shooting drought with a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the right corner. On the Hoosiers’ next possession, Jackson-Davis passed out of a double-team to sophomore guard Armaan Franklin who drained a 3-pointer from the left corner.
Within 20 seconds, the Hoosiers took a 6-point lead, stunning the Golden Gophers and allowing them to lock in defensively to carry themselves over the finish line.
“We're trying right now to get our team to really focus in on doing some more little things, little things matter,” Miller said. “I thought we made the little plays tonight that were needed.”
