With just a 1-point lead over Army West Point after a half of play Sunday night in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Indiana basketball desperately needed someone to step up.
That player proved to be sophomore center Kel’el Ware, who unleashed 11 straight points in the second half en route to the Hoosiers’ 72-64 victory. Ware notched a team-high 20 points in the victory on 9-of-11 shooting.
Ware gave the Hoosiers an auspicious start after slamming home an alley-oop from senior guard Xavier Johnson on Indiana’s first possession of the game. The 7-footer remained active early on, and he swatted a shot and corralled a pair of rebounds in the ensuing two minutes.
Turnovers would persistently plague the Hoosiers throughout the first half. After totaling 11 turnovers in last week’s win over Florida Gulf Coast University, Indiana coughed the ball up nine times in the first half alone Sunday night.
Army freshman guard Ryan Curry, though slight in stature at 6-feet tall, frequently probed through Indiana’s defense. Curry notched Army’s first five points and had 10 at the half, including a pair of 3-pointers.
While the Hoosiers’ starting five ultimately settled into the flow of the game and flashed some offensive cohesion, the second unit struggled mightily.
With the lineup of freshman Gabe Cupps, sophomores CJ Gunn and Kaleb Banks, junior Payton Sparks and senior Anthony Walker on the floor midway through the half, Army ripped off an 8-0 run and gained a 21-14 advantage with a little under eight minutes remaining.
Indiana’s second unit missed five consecutive shots and went scoreless in a near five-minute span, often forcing contested shots and providing little resistance on the other end of the floor. Regardless, the Hoosiers’ starting five returned and regained control.
The Hoosiers outscored the Black Knights 18-10 after the under-eight-minute timeout, and a nifty hook shot from sophomore forward Malik Reneau gave Indiana a 32-31 lead at the break.
Indiana and Army continued to trade buckets in the second half. Curry drained another pair of 3-pointers within the first three minutes of the period, but Ware responded with an individual offensive barrage.
In consecutive possessions, Ware drilled a fadeaway midrange jumper, slammed home an alley-oop from junior guard Trey Galloway, converted an and-one layup opportunity and made another turnaround jump shot to give the Hoosiers a 47-42 lead.
Following a sluggish offensive performance in the first period, Indiana’s scoring efforts improved dramatically as the second half wore on. While Ware’s outburst and another trio of straight scoring possessions gave the Hoosiers a more comfortable 8-point lead, the Black Knights refused to go away.
Army continued to claw back, and a driving layup from junior guard Blake Barker knotted the score at 58 with a little over three minutes to play. But after Ware helped the Hoosiers regain the lead from the free throw line, Indiana didn’t look back.
Reneau knocked down a pair of shots from the stripe, and Cupps splashed a wide-open corner 3-pointer to extend Indiana’s advantage to 64-58 with roughly two minutes to go, rejuvenating the Assembly Hall crowd in the process.
Shortly thereafter, Ware swiped the ball on defense and pushed it ahead to Galloway. Galloway slowed down and lobbed it up to Ware on the other end, who slammed home another ferocious dunk to seal Indiana’s win.
Aside from Ware, Johnson and Reneau scored in double figures with totals of 19 and 14 points, respectively. The Hoosiers shot a combined 58% from the field and 82% from the free throw line, the latter a considerable upgrade from Indiana’s mark against FGCU.
With the narrow victory, the Hoosiers moved to 2-0 on the season. They next turn to a matchup with Wright State University on Thursday. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. from Assembly Hall and can be watched on Big Ten Network.
Follow reporters Will Foley (@foles24) and Matt Press (@MattPress23) and columnist Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
