‘If you don’t come and meet the challenge, you’ll be exposed’: Indiana basketball asserts itself in Big Ten opening win

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — One of the knocks on this Indiana basketball team through the first month of the season has been its lack of toughness at times. On Friday, it was needed as Big Ten play began with one of the more physical teams in the league coming to Bloomington in Maryland.

Not only did Indiana basketball answer the call — it initiated the physicality and didn’t let up.

Indiana led for 39:39 and never trailed en route to its 65-53 win over the Terps. Its biggest lead was 23 points midway through the second half.

“If you don’t come and meet the challenge, then you’ll be exposed as a team,” Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson said postgame. “I thought tonight we were the more aggressive team.”

That aggressiveness was on both ends of the floor — especially in the paint. Coming into this matchup, both teams knew where the strengths of their team was.

Indiana won that battle and it began from the tip. It jumped out to an 18-6 lead with 12 of those points coming in the paint. That never wavered as Indiana outscored Maryland 40-26 inside.

That was led by Kel’el Ware who — again — paced Indiana with a team-high 18 points and 14 rebounds. He was 8-of-12 from the field, once again putting together an extremely efficient performance.

After struggling against the physicality of UConn and at times Louisville two weeks ago, he responded in a big way on Friday.

“Well, he’s been smacked around a little bit this early season,” Woodson said. “Hey, it’s part of the game, man. You’ve got to get in the fight. I thought he did a great job in holding his own and demanding the ball and making plays when he got the ball.”

“Felt like it was good us as a team to get that start early,” Ware said postgame. “Just to show the team that we came here to play today and just complete the mission to win the game.”

Ware’s front court partners were just as effective in the paint. Mackenzie Mgbako turned in another very effective game, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds and three assists. Malik Reneau added 11 points and five rebounds.

That trio combined for 26 rebounds — one of the best performances from that group this season. Maryland came into Friday’s matchup as one of the top offensive rebounding teams in the country. It had been no secret Indiana’s struggles on the glass this year. It was a point of emphasis entering Friday for not only the bigs to rebound at a higher rate, but for the guards and wings to do so as well.

That led to a 46-30 advantage, far and away Indiana’s best performance in that metric this season.

“It makes a big difference,” Woodson said. “That’s something we talked about in pregame that our wings and perimeter guys had to get in and mix it up a little bit and get rebounds, and I thought we did a great job in that regard. We’ve got to continue to do that. We can’t put all the pressure on Ware and Malik and big Payt (Payton Sparks) and (Anthony) Walker to get all the rebounds.”

Indiana outscored Maryland 14-8 in second chance points and had 15 offensive rebounds to the Terrapins 10.

Defensively was no different for Indiana as it held Maryland to just 35.7 percent shooting from the floor and just 2-of-16 from three. Maryland was just 8-of-28 in the second half from the field.

The Terps scored just .841 points per possession for the game.

I thought we were connected tonight. We didn’t give up a lot of threes. I thought our switching was right on par. You know, we had a few miscues but we didn’t let this team get into the teeth of our defense very much,” Woodson said. “And then early on, we kind of had our way from an offensive standpoint in the paint where Malik and big Ware were able to make buckets for us. I just thought defensively, we were solid tonight for 40 minutes.”

Indiana has one more Big Ten game on Tuesday as it travels to Michigan for its first true road test of the season. Then, the next Big Ten game isn’t until January 3.

So while the physical play was important for Indiana, especially tonight. It’s a trend that needs to continue on Tuesday and throughout the next month before Big Ten play comes back.

“It’s the Big Ten in general. I mean, it’s going to be this way every night you jumping up in the Big Ten,” Woodson said of the physicality. “It won’t be any easier when we go to Michigan next week. I mean, the Big Ten is tough. They let you play.:

“I think it’s good, just to get a feel what the Big Ten is like. It’s physical every night. You’ve got to be ready to go out there and compete,” Indiana basketball senior guard Trey Galloway said. “So I think getting a little taste of it is good, and then refocusing back in January is good.”