‘It shows our toughness and resilience’: Massive second half run in win shows ‘belief’ Indiana basketball still has in itself

Indiana basketball saw itself in an all-too-familiar position just a few minutes into the second half. At the 17:51 mark, Indiana saw itself down 16 points, its largest deficit of the game. It looked like it would be another poor effort outing, something that had become a consistent theme with this team. Instead, a roaring second-half gave Indiana an 83-78 win over Maryland.

Facing a 51-36 deficit, Indiana had two options; give up and give in, or use its unfortunate experience in these situations to dig deep and come out with a win. It did the latter.

Indiana went on to outscore Maryland by 20 the remaining 17:51 — thanks to an unbelievable effort on both ends of the floor.

“We’ve struggled to put the ball in the hole and tonight we put it together,” Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson said postgame. “I think X (Xavier Johnson) had a lot to do with it being out there and taking some of the pressure off of Gabe (Cupps). He got off to a good start for us, but I just thought X — it’s Xavier Johnson. He did a lot of good things on the floor from a defensive standpoint and controlling the game (offensively) with him and Gallo (Trey Galloway) out front. Our two seniors, I missed that this season.”

The Hoosiers shot 73.1 percent from the floor, were 2-of-5 on 3s and went 10-of-13 from the free throw line in the second half alone. Maryland, who came into Sunday’s matchup ranked fifth in the nation in defensive efficiency, had no answer for Indiana.

At one point, Indiana made 11 straight field goals and then 13-of-14, sparking a 15-0 run giving Indiana its largest lead of the game at 75-64 with 4:02 left in the game. While the offense was on full display, Indiana’s defense took its play to another level. After a Jamie Kaiser Jr made three at the 9:49 mark, the Terrapins didn’t score again until the 3:54 mark off of two free throws. It then didn’t make its next field goal until the 2:36 mark — marking a 7:13 stretch without a field goal in the second half.

“Our defense was solid,” Woodson said. “I mean we gave up a couple buckets at the end there but we probably would’ve held them to 30 points that (second) half and that gives you a chance to win on the road. We gave up 43 in the first half — we weren’t playing Indiana basketball from a defensive standpoint, and they knew that at halftime.”

“Just playing our defense and going over the scouting report from before the game and sticking to it,” Xavier Johnson said about the halftime adjustments. “In the first half, we got away from playing defense and they were getting straight-line drives and layups at the rim and that’s why they were beating us. We got stops in the second half and started to buckle down.”

The addition of Xavier Johnson back on the floor with a game under his belt was a major factor in the win. He played 31 minutes and had 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting with six assists and just one turnover. He also made life difficult on Jahmir Young, who had 22 points but was 8-of-18 from the field.

His consistent play and productivity from half to half allowed Trey Galloway to move off the ball and focus more on finding scoring opportunities than just making plays for his teammates. Galloway had 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting with five rebounds, four assists and just two turnovers in 38 minutes.

“It was as well as they played together since I’ve had them together,” Woodsons said of his backcourt. “It was probably — probably the two best games they’ve had (together), we just haven’t been able to get to that point. It is what it is man but to see them play together tonight and lead like they did being seniors, was kinda nice.”

But, the biggest factor offensively was Mackenzie Mgbako. The freshman scored 24 points — a new career high. It was his third new career high in the last five games. He had 18 points in the second half alone. For the game he was 8-of-15 from the floor with four 3s.

“I was like, ‘we gotta get the dub’. I was just like play within the team,” Mgbako said postgame.  “And my teammates got me some good shots and I had to knock them down.”

For the game, Indiana shot 56.4 percent from the field, was 7-of-16 from three and 14-of-17 from the free throw line. It was Indiana’s best offensive performance and first 80-point game in Big Ten play.

This was Indiana’s second 16+ point comeback in the second half this season. It had other double-digit deficits in the second half to Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin — all games where Indiana went on big second half runs but ran out of gas.

Sunday’s performance, Indiana basketball finished.

“It shows our toughness and resilience,” Mgbako said. “We’ve been in positions like that before so its good to be able to climb back and fight for the dub.”

“The past few games we weren’t able to get over the hump. We would cut back into the lead and then go right back to what we were doing to lose the game,” Johnson said. “This game, we raised our level and raised our bar. with us coming back, we wanted to win this game, so everyone raised their bar … we just played team basketball and once we got rolling we kept going.”

Indiana basketball has now won two games in a row, its first winning streak since a three-game streak from Dec. 19 – 29th.

Indiana has two games left in the regular season before the Big Ten Tournament begins. Indiana understands what’s at stake moving forward — win the Big Ten Tournament or no NCAA Tournament. But, with a ‘full deck’ finally on the table for the Hoosiers, this is the right time to go on a run.

“It’s nice to see. I don’t think anyone on our team stopped believing. we just haven’t been able to put together full 40 mintue ball games like I envisioned,” Woodson said. “I thought we played a terrible first half but we never quit. I thought the second half we came out and defensively were tremendous.”

“We got two bigs inside who can score the ball … when you add shooting to them,” Johnson added. “I don’t think anyone can beat us.”

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