Tucker/Ballo Spark Indiana to win over Gophers

By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports

     The Indiana Hoosiers played one of their better games of the season with 82-67 over the Minnesota Golden Gophers Monday Night in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Indiana is 8-2 on the season and 1-0 in the Big Ten and will hit the road for their first true road game of the season Friday Night when they travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to face the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Hoosiers are 7-0 at home and 1-2 when they played on a neutral court at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Minnesota drops to 6-5 and 0-2 in the Big Ten after a 90-72 home loss to Michigan State. The Hoosiers are 110-69 all-time against Minnesota and the Hoosiers have won the last nine meetings and the last nine matchups in Bloomington.

     Oumar Ballo led Indiana with 18 points and had his way inside against the Golden Gophers who could not contain the seven-footer. Freshman Bryson Tucker added 16 points off the bench and was the spark that got the Hoosiers going to put the Golden Gophers away. Malik Reneau added 15 points, Mackenize Mgbako added 13 and Kannan Carlyle added 11 points after he missed the last three games with a lower body injury. Myles Rice and Luke Goode scored 2 points apiece and Trey Galloway scored a point as the Hoosiers only played 8 players as a sign of tightening up their rotation. The Hoosiers finished the game 29-50 from the field for 58%, 3-11 from three-point range for 27% and 17-28 from the free throw line for 60%. Indiana pulled down 29 rebounds, 20 assists, 6 steals, 2 blocks and committed 12 turnovers.

     Dawson Garcia led Minnesota with 22 points and Mike Mitchell Jr. added 10 points. Minnesota finished the game 25-51 from the field for 49%, 2-10 from three-point range for 20% and 11-13 from the free throw line for 84%. The Golden Gophers pulled down 20 rebounds, dished out 11 assists, 9 steals 6 blocks and committed 12 turnovers. Garcia was sparking Minnesota finishing the game 9-14 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line and missed both his three-point attempts. The 6-11 Senior came in averaging 19 points and had a battle inside with Ballo all game long.

   The Golden Gophers are missing three starters from last year’s team as those three transferred to Texas A&M, Texas Tech and California through NIL monies.

    Dawson Garcia got the scoring started with a long jumper as the Hoosiers scored the next six points to make 6-2. Minnesota followed with a 6-0 of their own to take the lead 8-6. Minnesota led 12-10 with 15:42 left in the first half as the Golden Gophers had a five-point lead 12-7 which was the largest lead early on. Indiana took the lead with a 4-0 run to make it 14-12. Minnesota followed with a 4-0 run to lead 16-14 with 14:07 left in the first half. The game went back and forth with Minnesota leading 22-20 with 11:25 as there were 4 lead changes and 4 ties in that span.

    Bryson Tucker tied the game at 22-22 as the Freshman scored 8 points helping the Hoosiers outscored the Gophers 10-1 and a 30-23 lead with 7:29 left in the first half. Oumar Ballo scored 6 straight points to give the Hoosiers a 13-point lead 36-23. Both teams scored 8 points apiece to close out the first half as the Hoosiers went into the locker room up 44-31 at the break. The Hoosiers had 3 players in double figures at half with Ballo and Tucker scoring 11 points apiece and Malik Reneau adding 10.

   In the second half outscored the Gophers 6-2 to lead by 17 points with 15:48 left the game 50-33. Femi Odukale had 2 dunks, and the second one put the Gophers down 14 points 59-45 with 11:31 left in the second half. Indiana increased the lead to 21 after Kannan Carlyle completed a three-point play to give the Hoosiers their largest lead of the game. Minnesota got within 13 points 68-55 with 7:27 left but the Hoosiers scored 18 points down the stretch and held the Golden Gophers to 12 points.

  Indiana Head Coach Mike Woodson said after the game Carlyle fully practiced for the first time on Sunday since his injury and Carlyle said he “feels good” and he is fine coming off the bench and know that is job is to play defense and help on offense and he is going to whatever takes to help this team. “I want to win games” Kannan Carlyle said after the game. The big question is how to the Hoosiers handle their first true road game of the season at a place like Nebraska that has given them fits over the years. Indiana has not shown its full potential but a 15-point double-digit win against Minnesota to start the Big Ten season is a good start.