Indiana Squeezes Past Army in Discouraging Fashion, 72-64

Three Hoosiers score in double figures, but Indiana often struggled as the offense looked stagnant and the defense gave up too many open 3-pointers against a weak opponent.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana coach Mike Woodson knew the start of the season would be a work in progress with six new scholarship players, but he’s discouraged by the Hoosiers' lack of growth through two games.

Indiana snuck away with a 72-64 win over Army on Sunday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Army, ranked No. 327 in the nation by KenPom, entered the game 0-2 with a 71-55 loss to Marist and a 57-44 loss to Stonehill College.

Following an 18-turnover night, Woodson was blunt in summarizing the Hoosiers’ struggles on offense.

“We have to move it,” Woodson said. “We have to trust each other. We catch the ball, and the first thing we think about is putting the ball down on the floor, making a play for myself. This is a team game, a team sport. So we have to trust each other, and that's my job so get them to trust.’’

The game started with a similar feel to the season opener against Florida Gulf Coast. Clearly at a size disadvantage, Army was going to have to find the majority of its production from beyond the arc. And defensively, it had to be physical. That was shown through Army’s 10 first-half fouls and a 13-for-38 mark from three.

Indiana and Army traded baskets for the first five minutes, but things went downhill when Woodson went to the bench. Playing a lineup with five bench players – Gabe Cupps, CJ Gunn, Kaleb Banks, Anthony Walker and Payton Sparks – Indiana looked timid and disorganized offensively, wondering where the scoring was supposed to come from.

Indiana’s biggest deficit was 19-11 with 9:44 left in the half. Banks made a corner three to break a five-plus minute scoring drought, which was a promising sign in a half without many, especially for a player that Indiana needs to make a sophomore jump.

Woodson re-inserted the starters at the 7:29 mark, and an overall discouraging first half ended on a positive note. Indiana went on a 9-3 run in the final 2:51, and point guard Xavier Johnson stood above the rest. He finished the half with 15 points on 4-for-5 shooting, a pair of 3-pointers and a perfect 5-for-5 effort at the free throw line.

Army did nothing outstanding in the first half, but Indiana still found itself trailing for most of the half. After taking a 2-0 lead on the first possession, the Hoosiers didn’t lead again until 30-29, when Johnson knocked down his second 3-pointer, this one from the corner. Indiana had no fast break points in the first half, and its half-court offense didn’t show many signs of improvement from the exhibition games and season opener.

At halftime, all five bench players were negative in plus-minus, and the starters were all positive. These are the kinds of games where Woodson has to experiment with his bench, but the returns were anything but positive.

Army opened the second half with a pair of 3-pointers, one on an incredibly difficult corner look from Blake Barker, and the other from Ryan Curry. Indiana turned the ball over twice in the first three minutes, and Woodson called a timeout in frustration.

Kel’el Ware, who ended up leading Indiana with 20 points on 9-for-11 shooting, started with a run of his own with 16:41 left in the game. Ware scored 11 consecutive points, mixing in mid-range jumpers, dunk, layups and free throws. His final basket of this run gave Indiana a 47-42 lead with 13:24 remaining – the Hoosiers’ largest lead at that point.

Like he did in the season-opening win over Florida Gulf Coast, Woodson opted for a three-guard lineup with some combination of Johnson, Trey Galloway, Gabe Cupps and CJ Gunn together, and the offense started to open up. Cupps knocked down a mid-range jumper to push Indiana’s lead to eight.

But right when Indiana started to pull away, the offense became stagnant again, and Army immediately responded to Cupps’ jumper with a three, cutting the lead to five. The Hoosiers scored just four points from the 10:49 mark to the 3:20 point of the second half.

The momentum seemed to shift for good in Indaina’s favor after one of its best team defensive possessions of the game. Cupps played stingy on-ball defense, and Malik Reneau swatted away an Army layup, sparking an Indiana fastbreak. Cupps drilled a corner three, bringing the Assembly Hall crowd to its feet – the loudest it had been to that point.

The shot gave Indiana a six-point lead with 2:13 to play, and all it had to do was make free throws to seal the win. The Hoosiers went 6-for-6 at the line down the stretch, and a Galloway-to-Ware alley-oop put an exclamation point on a 14-6 Indiana run in the final 3:46 following a tie game.

After Ware’s 20 points, Johnson was next with 19 and Reneau had 14. No one else scored more than five points. Indiana shot 58.1% overall, 4-for-11 from three and 18-for-22 from the free throw line.

Next up, Indiana hosts Wright State Thursday at 7p.m. ET. Wright State is ranked No. 165 in the nation, per KenPom, and among the favorites to win the Horizon League. That’s the final tune-up before heading to New York to play the defending national champion UConn Huskies and either Texas or Louisville.

The Hoosiers have plenty to fix at this point in the season, and that starts on the offensive end. Woodson has emphasized the fast break, seen through 27 and 28-point efforts in the exhibition games, but that dropped to just four on Sunday.

The Hoosiers are also getting minimal production out of five-star freshman Mackenzie Mgbako, who finished Sunday’s game with just two points on 1-for-2 shooting. Woodson has benched him in the final 15 minutes of the last two games, in favor of the three-guard lineup.

“I'm going to play guys that want to play and play the right way,” Woodson said. “The last two games that small line-up coming down the stretch was pretty good for us. I don't know if we'll live with it the rest of the season.”