BLOOMINGTON — It wasn’t the prettiest of victories, but Indiana basketball remained undefeated with a 73-53 win over Lindenwood on Thursday night at Assembly Hall.
The Lions pulled to within six points early in the second half with a 10-0 run coming out of halftime only to watch Tucker DeVries heat up and rain down a series of 3-pointers to put the game back out of reach.
DeVries had a game-high 25 points with five 3-pointers for the No. 25 Hoosiers (5-0) and Sam Alexis had eight points and 10 rebounds off the bench.
“These are all things early in the year that as you’re getting going you learn how to win games in a lot of different ways, and that’s an important thing to have and quality to have,” IU coach Darian DeVries said. “I did think our defense again is what changed the game around in the second half. So we were able to get the lead, push back out, and a lot of that was because of defensive intensity just picked up.”
Indiana basketball’s Tucker DeVries gets hot hand in second half against Lindenwood
Outside of an off-balance 3-pointer on IU’s opening possession, Tucker DeVries had a quiet first half.
Things changed in a hurry coming out of the break.
DeVries scored 11 straight during one stretch to help IU push its lead to 20 points for the first time. He knocked down another tough shot from the corner and banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
His success helped Indiana survive another poor shooting performance from leading scorer Lamar Wilkerson.
Wilkerson had 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting (1 of 7 from 3-point range). He missed a series of open looks throughout the game and let out a sigh of relief at half court when he got his lone 3-pointer of the night to fall with 7:13 to go in the game.
“If he was 4 for 17 tonight that means there is an 11 for 17 coming soon,” Darian DeVries said. “He can let them rip whenever he wants. Like we always tell our guys, basketball is basketball. The best players in the world have off nights. He had an off-shooting night. That means we got a good one coming.”
Indiana basketball gets pushed around on the glass against Lindenwood
Indiana gave up a season-high 19 offensive rebounds and Lindenwood had 13 of those by the half. The only silver lining for IU was that Lindenwood couldn’t do all that much with the extra possessions while shooting 24.2% from the floor over the first 20 minutes.
It was the third time in five games IU gave up double-digit offensive rebounds and it was the most offensive rebounds the team has allowed since a 85-69 loss to Miami (19) in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
The Lions had size in the frontcourt with Milos Nenadic, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center out of Canada, in the starting lineup, but their athletic guards had success on the glass by following up their shots.
Indiana gave up four offensive rebounds on the same possession in the first half to groans from the crowd at Assembly Hall. They expressed similar frustration when Sam Alexis blocked a shot only for Lindenwood to grab the loose ball and knock down a jumper from right inside the 3-point line.
It’s an issue that needs to get cleaned up before IU heads into the Big Ten schedule against teams with greater size and athleticism.
“We just got to play harder to be honest,” Tucker DeVries said. “It’s been an emphasis in practice and we’ll get it fixed.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana basketball stays undefeated with win over Lindenwood
Reporting by Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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