Hoosiers Now

Rapid Reaction: Indiana Gives Fans One Last Smile

Playing before fans for the last time this season, Indiana got hot right before halftime and beat Nebraska 89-64 in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.

Tom Brew

Rapid Reaction: Indiana Gives Fans One Last Smile
Rapid Reaction: Indiana Gives Fans One Last Smile /

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — For many Indiana fans, Wednesday night's first-round Big Ten tournament game against Nebraska was their last chance to see the Hoosiers in person.

The Hoosiers made it worth their while, going on a wild run just before halftime and routing the struggling Cornhuskers 89-64 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Indiana (20-12) will now play No. 6 seed Penn State on Thursday night — and it will do it in an empty building after the Big Ten announced fans would no longer be allowed in the building because of the coronavirus scare.

"This closes the chapter on the first one, and now you get an opportunity to play a good Penn State team (Thursday),'' Miller said. "I would say it would be a heck of an environment in here, but it's going to be more like a closed scrimmage. But we've done that before in this building, so we'll be ready.''

Nebraska (7-25) lost for the 17th straight time. The Cornhuskers, who lost to Indiana twice during the regular season, haven't  won a game in 64 days, last smiling on Jan. 7 when they beat Iowa in Lincoln. Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg appeared to be sick on the bench, and went to the locker room with four minutes left in the game.

Hoiberg apparently wasn't feeling well earlier in the day, but he coached the game anyway, which seems odd considering the paranoia over coronavirus right now. He was taken to the hospital and after the game, and no one was allowed into the Nebraska locker room, or even down the hallway, which was roped off. As of 11:30 p.m. ET, the Nebraska players were still quarantined in their locker room. No Nebraska players or staff members spoke to the media, either.

Indiana did the same thing with its players as a precaution, with only coach Archie Miller attending the news conference. None of the players talked, and they all "cleaned up and went right back to the hotel,'' Miller said. 

"I think we're all sitting here teetering right now, not only about the Big Ten tournament, but also what happens after Sunday.''

Miller was asked specifically if any of his players were showing any signs of a cold or flu, and he said no.

"I think we're OK in terms of that, and obviously we've got our medical staff here with us and Tim (Garl) our trainer is on it right now,'' Miller said. "All of our players came into the game, and into the tournament doing really well. I think right now you monitor every situation, but I think we're doing OK there.''

In the early going, Indiana had its way inside against Nebraska's four-guard lineup, as its five big men — Trayce Jackson-Davis, Joey Brunk, Justin Smith, Race Thompson and De'Ron Davis — were a combined 10-for-15 (66.7 percent) from the field in the first half. The Hoosiers were also 4-for-10 from three-point range, getting good looks on kick-outs.

Nebraska hung around for the longest time and even grabbed a six-point lead late in the half at 33-27 with 4:05 left. But then the Hoosiers really got hot, going on  16-1 run to end the half, making 6-of-7 shots to start to pull away. 

Nebraska went cold at the same time. After opening the game by making 4-of-6 three pointers in the first seven minutes, the Cornhuskers went 0-for-9 from deep the rest of the way.

All 10 Hoosiers who played in the first half scored. Senior guard Devonte Green, who was questionable with an ankle injury sustained in last Sunday's loss against Wisconsin, led the way with seven points.

Indiana's hot streak continued in the second half as well, as it ripped off a 15-4 run to get up by 20. Nebraska didn't want to go away though, and scrapped its way back into the game little by little, going on an 11-0 run to cut the lead to 68-58 with 8 minutes to go.

But Indiana had one more run in them, too, and pulled away for the win. The Hoosiers had five players in double figures on the night, with Armaan Franklin leading he way with 13 points. Smith and Green had 12 each and Durham and Jackson-Davis had 11. Jackson-Davis also had a season-high 17 rebounds.

In the first game of the night, Minnesota beat Northwestern, 74-57.  The Gophers were led by Daniel Oturu, who had 24 points and 8 rebounds. 

There was a nice moment of levity in the game when the ball got stuck between the backboard and the shot clock and Indiana's Race Thompson had a hard time getting it down.

On Thursday, Michigan and Rutgers will play the first game at Noon ET, followed by Minnesota and Iowa. In the evening session, No. 10 seed Purdue will take on Ohio State and Indiana will play the final game against Penn State. 

The Hoosiers split the season series with Penn State, losing 64-49 at State College on Jan. 29, and beating them 68-60 in Bloomington on Feb. 23 

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Tom Brew
TOM BREW

Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who has worked at some of America's finest newspapers as a reporter and editor, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the Indianapolis Star and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered college sports in the digital platform for the past six years, including the last five years as publisher of HoosiersNow on the FanNation/Sports Illustrated network.

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