Hoosier Frontline Dominate in Win

The Hoosiers frontline dominated in the win led by Kel’el Ware with his third double-double of the season with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Freshman Mackenize Mgbako added 13 points while Malik Reneau added 11 points.  Trey Galloway scored 11 and Freshman Gabe Cupps got his first career start in place of Xavier Johnson who was injured in Last Sunday’s win over Harvard in Indianapolis and was unavailable. Cupps did not score but had 2 steals, a rebound and committed two turnovers in 24 minutes of action.  The Hoosiers finished 26-57 from the field for 45%, 3-9 from three-point range for 33% and 10-18 from the free throw line for 56%.

The Hoosiers pulled down 46 rebounds, dished out 17 assists, 7 steals, 4 blocks and committed 16 turnovers. Indiana had 40 points in the paint with 13 layups and 2 dunks. The Hoosier bench scored 11 points and attacked the glass with 15 offensive rebounds. The Hoosiers did not score for the final 3:17 of the game. The controlled the game start to finish as Maryland got as close as 10 points 50 seconds into the second half and Indiana led by double digits the rest of the way.

Maryland was led in scoring by Jahmir Young with 20 points. Julian Reese scored 14 points and added 8 rebounds. Former Indiana Hoosier Jordan Geronimo did not score in 27 minutes. Geronimo played three years at Indiana from 2020-23 playing 82 total games and starting six games and scoring 338 points for a 4.1 scoring average. The Senior from Newark, New Jersey was 0-5 from the field, 0-3 from three-point range and 0-1 from the free throw line. He pulled down 4 rebounds, 2 steals, a block, 3 turnovers and committed 3 fouls.

Maryland finished 20-56 from the field for 35%, 2-16 from three-point range for 12% and 11-17 from the Free Throw Line for 64%. Maryland pulled down 30 rebounds, 9 steals, 8 assists, 7 blocks and committed 12 turnovers. The Terrapins had 26 points in the paint and scored 8 points off the bench. Maryland did not score for the final 2:34 of the game.

The Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall crowd was into the game all game long and during a timeout midway through the first half new Indiana University Head Football Coach Curt Cignetti was introduced and he got the crowd fired up by saying “I don’t plan on taking a back seat to anybody. Purdue sucks, but so does Michigan and Ohio State, Go IU”.  Before Mike Woodson took questions in the post-game press conference, he wanted to make sure that he acknowledged the new man in charge of Indiana University Football.   “Want to shout out our new coach Curt (Cignetti) Welcome to Bloomington and couldn’t think of a better place to come” Head Coach Mike Woodson said after the game.

This was the earliest Big Ten game the Hoosiers have played since beating Northwestern 68-66 on December 1, 2018, in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Since the Big Ten Expanded to 14 teams all teams have played two conference games at start of December before finishing the non-conference and then going back to Conference play in January.  Head Coach Mike Woodson knows what lies ahead during a 20-game conference schedule. “It’s going to be this way every night, The Big Ten is tough. They let you play. So, if you don’t come and meet the challenge, you’ll be exposed as a team” Woodson said. The Hoosiers jumped out to a 13-4 lead with 14:54 left in the first half and led 40-28 at halftime and put Maryland on their heels the entire game.