Indiana led by six at halftime but was outscored 54-39 in the second half in a 79-70 loss to Northwestern Wednesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The loss dropped the Hoosiers to 14-6 overall and 5-4 in Big Ten play.
Here are five takeaways from the loss to the Wildcats:
Indiana’s defense in the second half was non-existent
In 20 minutes, Northwestern managed just 25 points on 30.8 shooting from the field. Indiana was in strong position and led the Wildcats 31-25 at halftime.
However, while Northwestern started the second half with an offensive punch, Indiana had no defensive answer. It took the Wildcats less than four minutes to turn a six-point deficit into a two-point lead.
Indiana continually lost Ty Berry – who had 11 points in the first half – on the perimeter. The fifth-year senior went 4-for-7 from 3 in the final 20 minutes. Four different Northwestern players made 3-pointers in the second half and the Wildcats shot 9 of 14 from distance in the second half.
Northwestern scored 54 points in the second half on 20-of-32 (62.5%) shooting. The Wildcats scored 1,688 points per possession and scored on 23 of their 32 possessions in the final 20 minutes.
“Our communication from a defensive standpoint was lost in the second half,” Mike Woodson said after the game. “Our switches, we weren’t together on the switches, where we were connected for the first half and they made us pay for that.”
Turnovers help fuel Northwestern
One of the keys to the game for Indiana was taking care of the ball. Entering Wednesday’s game, Northwestern’s opponents were turning the ball over an average of 14.2 times per game.
The Hoosiers turned the ball over eight times in the first half, but they were fortunate that the Wildcats only managed four points thanks to those miscues.
That luck changed in the second half as Indiana turnovers helped fuel the Northwestern offense. IU’s carelessness with the ball — the Hoosiers had nine turnovers in the final 20 minutes — led to 17 points for the Wildcats.
For the game, Northwestern won the points in the battle of turnovers, 21-19.
Indiana starting guards Myles Rice and Anthony Leal combined for eight of the team’s 17 turnovers. Oumar Ballo, Mackenzie Mgbako and Trey Galloway had three turnovers each.
Dual programming makes a comeback
Indiana junior forward Malik Reneau, who had missed the last five games with a knee injury, was available to play for the first time in three weeks.
Wearing a knee brace, Reneau looked nothing like himself during the 11 minutes he played. The Hoosiers were outscored by 11 points with him on the floor. He shot 0 of 6 from the field and made just two points on two free throws.
Rather than using Reneau as a backup to give Ballo a break, Woodson opted to play the duo together for 15 possessions.
According to Synergy Sports, the numbers with both players on the field were not encouraging. With Ballo and Reneau playing together, Indiana scored 0.53 points per possession. And defensively, the Hoosiers gave up 1.58 points per possession with the duo on the floor.
How Woodson chooses to use the pair moving forward is an open question. But on Wednesday, it was clear the Hoosiers were out of shape defensively with Ballo and Reneau on the field together.
Even when healthy, Reneau cannot compete defensively with perimeter attackers. This often puts Indiana in tough defensive situations and leads to favorable looks for its opponents, which was certainly the case against Northwestern.
Indiana’s 2-point shooting percentage is last in the Big Ten in conference play
Woodson’s offense is designed to produce favorable looks in the paint. The Hoosiers shoot a low volume of 3-pointers, focusing on getting the ball in and trying to get to the free throw line.
After ranking first in the conference last season in 2-point shooting percentage – 53.3 – Indiana is last after nine league games this season.
The Hoosiers went 15 of 37 (40.5%) from 2 against the Wildcats and now shoot 47.7% from 2 in Big Ten games.
In its last seven Big Ten games, Indiana has shot over 50% from 2 just once, the Jan. 8 USC game.
Indiana made up for its poor shooting inside the arc on Wednesday by going 9 of 20 from 3-point range, but how often will that happen in the future?
Woodson continues to search for answers
The opening question was simple during Woodson’s postgame press conference Wednesday night.
“What do you think is stopping this team, right now, from playing pretty consistently for a full period, you talked about stretching, but for a full 40 minutes?”
Woodson didn’t elaborate on what’s holding the Hoosiers back.
“I wish I knew. I’m still trying to figure it out,” Woodson said. “I know we got Malik back, and we knew we weren’t going to play him very long tonight. But we had a hell of a defensive half, then we came out and we gave up 54 points and we had a series of turnovers. I mean, it was just a bad combination. We just didn’t play well in the second half.
Indiana is 20 games into the season in the fourth year of Woodson’s tenure and, according to the veteran coach, is still trying to figure out how to play consistently for 40 minutes.
Later in the press conference, Woodson was asked if he was concerned about IU’s lack of defensive connectivity at this point in the season.
“No. I mean, you can never worry,” Woodson said. “There are still too many games left. We played a good game on the road and beat Ohio State, then came here and had the opportunity to win a game and we let it slip away in the second half. You have to give them credit. They played hard in the second half, and we didn’t.
With the regular season now 65 percent complete, Indiana doesn’t have much time to turn things around.
(Photo credit: Northwestern Athletics)
Filed to: Northwest Wildcats
