Parker Stewart Gets Hot Hand in Indiana's Blowout Win over Louisiana

Starting guard Parker Stewart has been quiet through Indiana's first three games, but he was on fire Sunday night, making his first six shots and leading the Hoosiers to an easy 76-44 victory over Louisiana at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Even though Parker Stewart had been very quiet through Indiana's first three games, no one was ready to panic. He's a shooter, plain and simple. And shooters shoot.

Stewart finally heated up on Sunday night, hitting his first six shots — including four three-pointers — to lead Indiana to an easy 76-44 victory over Louisiana at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. 

Stewart led the Hoosiers with 16 points after scoring just nine total points in Indiana's first three wins. Junior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis added 11 and freshman Tamar Bates had 10.

"It was awesome. I haven't been shooting it that good up until tonight,'' said the soft-spoken Stewart, who transferred to Indiana from UT-Martin last winter. "After I see one (go in), it's a whole lot easier. I shoot a lot. It’s awesome to see it go through the net."

Stewart puts in a ton of work on his shot, getting extra jumpers up before and after practice, and whenever he has a few extra minutes. Recently, after an Indiana women's game, he came out on the Assembly Hall floor and shot for quite a while.

It's only been two weeks, so there were no concerns from his coaches or teammates about his slow start. They've all continued to encourage him to shoot, and he did just that Sunday. He missed his last shot, finishing 6-for-7 on the night.

"I saw Parker shoot it like that in our exhibition game in the Bahamas and I've seen it in practice,'' Woodson said. "I know he can shoot. Tonight he was ready to shoot it. Guys like that have just be ready, and he was.''

Indiana's defense has been guiding them through this four-game winning streak to start the season, and Sunday night was no different. Louisiana scored only 14 first-half points and made just two of its first 29 shots. For the game, Louisiana shot just 19.2 percent, making only 14 of 73 shots,.

"I've got to give the players all the credit,'' Indiana coach Mike Woodson said of their defensive efforts. Their four opponents are averaging only 20 points in the first halves so far. "They really pay attention to details, especially when we're game-prepping for our opponents. They're going out and executing, so it's kind of nice to see from a coaching standpoint.

"Our guards that are on the ball have a responsibility, and those responsibilities have been executed pretty well, I think, from a pick and roll standpoint. Our pick and roll defense has been pretty good because our bigs are active and able to be up, and we are demanding our guards get into the ball and take onus on guarding the ball. It kind of goes hand in hand.''

Indiana's defense was so good that Louisiana, which came into the game with a 3-0 record, didn't even hit double figures until there was only 3:24 left in the first half. 

The Hoosiers shot the ball well, and were above 60 percent for most of the game. They finished at 53.8 percent from the field, and were 10-of-19 from three-point range, with six different players hitting a three. Indiana also made 10-of-13 free throws (76.9 percent) after struggling from the line against St. John's on Wednesday.

The only problem on the night were turnovers. Indiana had a season-high 27, which Woodson didn't like. Their goal is no more than 12 a game, so this was a bit of a mess.

"There's a lot of running that's going to take place (Monday),'' Woodson said  I'm a little disappointed about that. But at the end of the day, this is something we haven't been accustomed to doing and I'm a little disappointed about that.

"Our point guards had eight between them, and (Jordan) Geronimo is doing things that he shouldn't be doing with the ball. So those are things that we can clean up, but overall I think it was a total team effort. Everybody that was thrown in the game tonight was ready to play. That's important when you trying to build winning ways.''

Indiana's second unit was shorthanded Sunday night. Sophomore guard Trey Galloway broke his wrist on that flagrant foul on Wednesday against St. John's and will miss at least a month. And backup point guard Rob Phinisee couldn't go because of a calf injury.

Next man up was sophomore Khristian Lander, who got his first extended minutes of the year. He played 24 minutes — more than anyone except for forward Miller Kopp (30) — and Lander scored nine points. He also had six rebounds and two steals, but four turnovers.

"I thought everybody was ready to play. That second unit was really good tonight,'' Woodson said.  "Khristian, it was perfect. He hasn't played a lot, but he was ready to play. He gave us a lot of positive minutes. We’ve just got to get him running our ball club a little bit better and taking pride in not turning the ball over.''

Indiana has had big leads at halftime in every game so far this season, but Eastern Michigan and St. John's both made second-half runs against them. Woodson sternly reminded them at halftime on Sunday night that a relapse wasn't an option.

"You know, I just tell guys at halftime, listen, we've been in this position a few times where we didn't come out and play like we got the lead,'' Woodson said. "So I'm always hammering that into them at halftime. You've just got to do the things that got you the lead, and the defensive end was the reason you were in the position you were in.

"So you've got to stay solid in that area. I thought we were pretty good the second half, for the most part.''

Louisiana coach Bob Marlin was disappointed in his team's showing, but was impressed with Indiana. 

"Give Indiana credit. They had a good game plan, and they played extremely well,” Marlin said.  “We didn’t play very well. We should have given Indiana a better game. Our guys felt like we were ready, but we weren’t. We didn’t make shots. We played hard, but we weren’t efficient. 

"It just got out of hand early and kind of snowballed from there and we missed a lot of point-blank shots that we should have been making. I think our guys got frustrated a little bit.'' 

Indiana is back in action on Tuesday night with a home game against Jackson State.