No Rust for the Hoosiers in a double-digit win over the Huskies 

No Rust for the Hoosiers in a double-digit win over the Huskies 

By Nick Jenkinson\Excel H Sports

    The Indiana Hoosiers had a two-week break since their last game back on December 22, against Siena and on Sunday Evening the Hoosiers had no rust in a 90-80 win over the Washington Huskies at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Indiana is 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten and will travel to Maryland Wednesday Night at 6:30 PM. Washington is 9-5 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten and will stay in the State of Indiana traveling to West Lafayette to face the Purdue Boilermakers at 8:30 PM on Wednesday.

   Indiana leads the all-time series 5-1 and has won the last five meetings including the last two as Big Ten Conference opponents. This was the second time the teams met in Bloomington and the first since a 78-62 Indiana victory on December 29,1978.

   Indiana put four in double figures as all eight Hoosiers that played scored. Lamar Wilkerson scored 22 points, and Tayton Conerway added 20 points. Conor Enright scored 12 points and 10 points from Freshman Trent Sisley. Reed Bailey and Nick Dorn added 8 points apiece. Tucker DeVries scored 6 points, and Sam Alexis scored 4 points and added 6 rebounds. The Hoosiers finished 31-60 from the field for 51%, 12-28 from three-point range for 43% and 16-20 from the free throw line.

  The Hoosiers pulled down 33 rebounds, dished 16 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 4 turnovers. Indiana scored 30 points in the paint, 26 bench points, 13 second chance points, 12 bench points and 4 points off turnovers.

   Freshman Hannes Stienbach led the Huskies with 20 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double and his ninth in eleven games. The 6-11 German finished 6-9 from the field, 0-2 from three-point range and 8-9 from the free throw line. Desmond Claude scored 18 points and Zoom Diallo added 16 points. Gary West Side Graduate Quimari Peterson scored 13 points in his return to his home state. Former Indiana Hoosier Bryson Tucker scored 11 points in 28 minutes off the bench in his return to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall after spending his freshman season with the Hoosiers a season ago for former coach Mike Woodson.

   Washington finished 26-57 from the field for 45%, 6-21 from three-point range for 28% and 22-25 from the free throw line for 88%. The Huskies pulled down 29 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 blocks a steal and 4 turnovers. The Huskies scored 34 points in the paint, 14 second chance points, 12 fastbreak points, 11 bench points and 4 points off turnovers.

    There were 5 lead changes and 3 ties as both teams came out knocking down the outside shot. Indiana started the game 5-5 from downtown and were 6-12 from downtown in the first half. Indiana was 18-27 from the field for 66% and 10-10 from the free throw line. Washington was 17-31 from the field for 54%, 5-14 from three-point range for 35% and 1-1 from the free throw line as the Hoosiers led 52-40 at halftime.

    Washington outscored Indiana 40-38 in the second half but the Huskies only hit one of their last seven shots from the field and did not hit a field goal for the last two minutes and forty-seven seconds. Indiana never trailed in the second half as the Huskies trailed by four points 54-50 with 16:04 left in the second half. The Hoosiers led by 11 with 5:54 left in the second half as Washington cut the lead to six points 86-80 with 41 seconds left in the game. Lamar Wilkerson drained four free throws as the Hoosiers win their second Big Ten game by double digits.

   Indiana is a team that when they are hitting three pointers they are tough to beat. Conor Enright is the floor general and does not look for his shot most of the time but playing for Darian DeVries when he was Drake and now reunited at Indiana the Senior knows what is expected of him and when he needs to he takes the shots needed and provides energy and hustle that Hoosiers need to get the home crowd fired up. It was also amazing to just 8 turnovers in the game between both teams and was a good one to watch and gives Indiana good momentum heading to Maryland on Wednesday Night.