No. 14 Indiana men’s basketball (5-2) finished its week in the Bahamas with a convincing 89-73 victory over Providence College (5-3) on Friday afternoon in the seventh-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.
The win marked the first of the week for the Hoosiers, who lost 89-61 to the University of Louisville on Wednesday and 89-73 to Gonzaga University on Thursday.
But Indiana, playing a Providence squad which played in Thursday’s nightcap and had a 12-hour turnaround, capitalized on its rest advantage and will fly back to Bloomington with a victory — and a few valuable lessons.
“We’ve got to play harder, get better,” Indiana head coach Mike Woodson said postgame. “We’ll continue to practice and work hard, and I’ve got to keep pushing them. (Gonzaga) played hard, Louisville played hard — we’ve got to get our guys playing at that level, because if we do, we can put ourselves in position to beat really good teams.”
Sophomore forward Mackenzie Mgbako led the Hoosiers in scoring with 25 points on 9-for-14 shooting, including 4 for 7 from distance. Junior forward Malik Reneau followed with 21 points, while fifth-year senior guard Trey Galloway added 18 points and five assists.
Galloway made his first start of the season Friday, replacing sophomore guard Kanaan Carlyle, who did not play due to a lower body injury. Woodson said Carlyle couldn’t move this morning.
Woodson declined to expand on whether Galloway will replace Carlyle in the starting lineup moving forward, but he was pleased with Galloway’s performance overall.
“He played great today,” Woodson said. “It was probably the best he's felt in a long time. He did a lot of good things to help us win.”
Indiana shot 53.3% both from the field and beyond the arc, matching its season-high with eight made 3-pointers. The Hoosiers benefitted from a balanced scoring attack, receiving points from eight of nine players who took the floor.
In addition to the 18-plus points from Galloway, Reneau and Mgbako, sixth-year senior center Oumar Ballo posted 8 points and 10 rebounds while senior forward Luke Goode scored a season-high 9 points.
“It just shows how good we are when we move the ball, when we’re getting touches on both sides of the floor, when we’re playing defense, when we’re getting both sides of the court moving, it’s just going to pay off in the right way,” Mgbako said postgame.
The Hoosiers started strong, carrying a 20-13 advantage into the under-12 timeout while leading as large as 33-21 in the first half. Providence, however, trimmed its deficit to just 33-28 with 5:30 to play.
Indiana closed the first half on an 11-6 run to carry a 44-34 edge into the break — and quickly added to it out of the locker room.
Galloway and Reneau spearheaded a 10-3 start to the half, and the Hoosiers surged to their largest lead at 54-37. Indiana never looked back, leading by double digits for all but 36 seconds in the second half.
The Hoosiers return to action at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against Sam Houston State University inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa) and columnist Mateo Fuentes-Rohwer (@mateo_frohwer) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
This story has been updated with quotes from the postgame press conference.
