{"id":72626,"date":"2025-08-10T15:39:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72626\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T15:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:39:06","slug":"leaning-on-its-toughness-indiana-pulled-together-and-flipped-the-script-in-blowout-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/72626\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaning on its toughness, Indiana ‘pulled together’ and flipped the script in blowout win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Down 23, reeling and struggling to find any sort of momentum or rhythm, Indiana<\/a> was faced with adversity for the first time as a new group. The question everyone was asking; how would they respond. <\/p>\n

After Indiana cruised to a game one win on Wednesday, its matchup with Mega Superbet on Saturday was quite different. They were a longer, bigger and a tougher team and immediately knocked Indiana back with the physical style of play. <\/p>\n

Before Indiana could blink, a 23-point deficit read on the scoreboard. Then, the response. Indiana found a way, through the defensive intensity of Tayton Conerway and Reed Bailey, to tread water and go into the half down just 13 \u2014 a win by many standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was great for us to be honest with you.\u00a0You know, you come into a game \u2014\u00a0I thought their physicality really bothered us that first 10 minutes. But I really like the way the guys responded,\u201d head coach Darian DeVries said after the 93-71 win<\/a>. \u201cThey got punched in the mouth a little bit.\u00a0Down 23. There\u2019s a lot of different ways that game can go from that point. I just like the way they kind of pulled together, dug in and fought harder\u00a0and didn\u2019t try to do it on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a first half when Indiana struggled to defend on the perimeter and in the paint, halftime adjustments were made and it resulted in a massive shift in momentum. Indiana quickly jumped to an 8-0 spurt out of the gates and eventually went on a 22-4 run and turned the tide in a major way.<\/p>\n

Live Game Updates: FINAL \u2013 Indiana 93, Mega Superbet 71<\/a><\/p>\n

In total, Indiana outscored Mega Superbet 58-23 in the second half. <\/p>\n

Following the initial 44-21 deficit, Indiana would go on to outscore Superbet 72-27. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought at halftime they really adjusted to some of the things that they were doing to us defensively and were able to take it and change the mindset of how we wanted to attack them,\u201d DeVries said. \u201cAnd then defensively, I thought they did a good job, too, of being more disciplined in what we were doing on that end of the floor. And we were encouraging them to get stops, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Indiana\u2019s ability to score in bunches was on display, it was the defense that lifted Indiana to its Saturday night win. Between Tayton Conerway\u2019s ball pressure, Reed Bailey\u2019s quick hands or Tucker DeVries diving on the floor for loose balls, the energy and enthusiasm on the defensive end of the floor flipped the script for the Hoosiers. <\/p>\n

On the other end, Lamar Wilkerson led five double-digit scorers with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 4-of-7 from three. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just played with more physicality. At first they were punking us, be more physical, getting the extra plays we needed. Allowing them to get offensive rebounds and stuff like that,\u201d Wilkerson said<\/a>. \u201cOnce we started turning that away and getting out in transition and started to run, that\u2019s where the tables turned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indiana gets back on the floor for a rematch with Mega Superbet on Monday morning \u2014 its final game of the Puerto Rico exhibition trip.<\/p>\n

For DeVries, the goal of the trip was to continue to bond, build chemistry and learn even more about this group. Saturday encapsulated all in one.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a new team with a bunch of new guys on it,\u00a0\u00a0you have to learn how to win together and overcome some adversity at times,\u201d DeVries said. \u201cThis was a great opportunity for us to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you\u2019ve got a group of guys and we\u2019re, you know, way early in the preseason with things, but for them to pull together in an adverse situation like this, I don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to respond, you know, and this was our first opportunity to see. And I like the way they pulled together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not yet a member of TheHoosier?\u00a0 Join\u00a0our community\u00a0<\/a>for Just $1 for your first week and get a complimentary year of The Athletic included with your membership. Join\u00a0here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Use the code \u201cIND20\u201d on\u00a0Rhoback.com<\/a>\u00a0for a generous 20% off for all new customers through the end of this week. Rhoback \u2014 Best Fit, Best Feel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Down 23, reeling and struggling to find any sort of momentum or rhythm, Indiana was faced with adversity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,417,52011,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-72626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-in","10":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-bloomington","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaabasketball","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}