'Find a way to win games when shots aren't falling': It wasn't pretty, but Indiana's win brings 'learning opportunities' and growth moving forward

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana’s offensive DNA is it’s ability to make shots and through the first part of the season, it did exactly that. Sunday’s win over Incarnate Word, however, was nothing like its normal performance.

It was a sloppy, low energy and sluggish game from the tip that led to Indiana surviving an upset-minded Cardinals team, 69-61. The biggest takeaway for Darian DeVries as he was met with his team’s first uncharacteristic performance?

“30-some game season, we have good shooters, we’re built to make threes, so on a night where we don’t shoot it particularly well you got find way a way to win. I’m glad we were able to do that,” DeVries said after the game. “There is plenty to look at as to why it happened, but the reality is you’re going to have off shooting nights. It’s just going to happen. Tonight was one of them.”

Indiana shot just 43.4 percent from the floor and was 5-of-24 from three. Through the first three games, Indiana made 10, 14 and 14 3s. It was shooting 47.5 percent from three entering Sunday.

After seeing eight players make at least one three on Wednesday, Indiana has just two players convert on Sunday — Tucker DeVries and Trent Sisley.

“First of all, credit to them. I thought they came in confident, played well, executed their game plan pretty well,” Tucker DeVries said. “On our end it took us out of rhythm a little bit, especially in the first half; second half obviously shots weren’t falling.

“But I think at the end of the day that’s important, to still find a way to win games when shots aren’t falling. I know it didn’t look pretty, but that’s part of growing. I think there is a lot we can take away from that as we look at it tomorrow.”

Three takeaways from Indiana’s 69-61 win over Incarnate Word

It was a double-digit lead at halftime and, while still sluggish, Indiana was able to assert itself. Then things changed. Indiana made its first three shots of the second half, but then went from the 16:17 mark to 8:48 before it made its next three shots, going just 3-of-10 in that time. Indiana then missed its next five shots.

It took Indiana up until the 2:22 mark, and its second-to-last shot attempt of the game, to hit its second three of the second half.

Over that span, an 18-point lead shrunk to just five.

“I didn’t think we were — maybe it’s — sometimes with teams, even veteran teams when you’re not making shots your energy isn’t where you want it to be,” Darian DeVries said. “That’s fighting human nature and that’s what we can’t be … That’s where the learning comes in tonight on it’s not going perfectly for us as an offense. We are missing the shots we normally make. You got to continue to fight.”

Continuing to fight — even though it was ugly — was what Indiana did. Knowing it needed to create its own energy and figure out a way to pull out a win, it was a few plays at the rim by Tayton Conerway and Sam Alexis that created some momentum, followed by back-to-back jumpers by DeVries.

“I mean, coach always tell us to keep going,” Alexis said. “So I just feel like we just — we are a whole bunch of seniors, so we just put our heads together and just went out there and played hard the last five, four minutes.”

So, while it wasn’t a pretty win — it was a win nonetheless. Indiana’s group still has just four regular season games under its belt playing together. If’s found ways to win ugly, win big and now win without making shots. That won’t always be the case, but for now it is and the learning experiences continue to come.

“The second half you see an 18 point lead evaporate because they shoot 54 percent. So that’s the learning opportunity,” DeVries said. “It’s a 40 minute game. That’s something that we’ll certainly take advantage of. Like I said, I like learning after wins. That’s much better, but there is a lot of positives there, too. You know, we’ll take it for what it is and learn from it and move on.

“So that’s something that we’ll take and go, like, ‘hey, you built this lead because your defense was still really good’. That energy is something we have to play with. We got to be a very spirited, physical, tough-minded group for 40 minutes every night. That’s how we’re going to win.”

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