BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Growing antsy with the officiating and the hanging-around Kennesaw State Owls, Assembly Hall’s vocal outliers grew to become a majority. Indiana, who once held a lead that ballooned to as much as 13 in the first half Friday night, now faced a four-point deficit just seven minutes into the final 20 minutes of the contest.
Already down two starters and with mounting adversity, the Hoosiers were doing nothing to shake the reappearing woes that prevented Indiana from putting away lesser opponents so many times earlier this season. Once again, they had found themselves in a dogfight as the closing bell drew closer.
Yet Indiana’s way of going about digging out of aforementioned holes usually included a heavy reliance on the Hoosiers’ frontline. With less options available on the evening, the third-year Hoosier head coach Mike Woodson turned to his senior.
Not the one sitting in sweats and champion at the bit to get back from a foot injury. No, not Xavier Johnson.
Woodson inserted Anthony Leal, the senior who’s best ability has been his availability. That’s not to mention all the positives he would bestow upon his Hoosiers Friday night.
“He’s had a really great week of practice,” Woodson reasoned postgame. “After the break, he came back, and I thought his two days of practice, he deserved to play more. And I just decided to play him.”
Leal entered the contest at the 12:59 mark, the jumbotron at Simon Skojdt Assembly Hall favoring the Owls, 68-64. Joined by Anthony Walker, Kaleb Banks, Trey Galloway and Malik Reneau, the five on the floor began chipping away quickly.
But it was more than that. A staggering 21-3 run ensued to swing the momentum back toward the Hoosier sideline, the once-restless Assembly Hall faithful rising to a fever pitch. With 6:49 to play, Indiana clung to a 14-point lead.
The margin was never again within single digits as IU scored 36 of the final 55 points in a 100-87 victory. While the smaller lineup was on the floor – spearheaded by Leal's defensive efforts – the Owls shot just 7-for-21 from the field. Up to that point in the contest, Kennesaw State was shooting 25-for-50.
“He gave us a hell of a spark when he came in,” Woodson continued. “I mean, just from a defensive standpoint. He did a lot of things that we didn’t do early in that spot.”
Indiana’s opponent had hung around for so long due to generally poor perimeter play. When IU wasn’t turning the Owls over and running in transition themselves, it struggled to defend perimeter dribble penetration and spot-up attempts from distance – thanks in part to missed rotations and overhelping. Miscommunication has had its way with a unit that still, at least in spurts, looks to still struggle to jell as one.
So when Indiana entered Leal, the senior who’s appeared in just 53 games over his four seasons as a Hoosier counting the victory over the Owls, he helped to right the Hoosiers’ ship. Suddenly, IU was afforded the ability to switch 1 through 5, and the gap shrunk before completely flipping its favor.
Leal’s defensive energy was infectious, his impact obvious. An unassuming statline does a poor job of measuring his impact on winning outside of the often-flawed +/-, which was a game-high +17 in 14 minutes of play. He was far from being one of the six Hoosiers that finished the evening in double figures, only recording counting stats of two points, an assist and a block on paper.
“He came in with so much energy, it just rejuvenated us,” Reneau said postgame fresh off his 34-point night, ”and got us back to what we needed to do on the court, and we got stops.”
His opportunities have come sparingly, especially so for the likes of a former Indiana Mr. Basketball winner. 20 appearances under former head coach Archie Miller shrunk to 17 and 11 in his two most recent years with Woodson.
But the much-beloved Bloomington native had his fingerprints all over the closing third of Indiana’s 10th win of the season in 13 tries as conference play arrives once again past the turn of the calendar to 2024.
“We didn’t fold,” Woodson said. “When we went down four, our defense kicked in, got stops. We executed on the other end, and got the lead and was able to bring it home.”
Leal, an undeniable catalyst to the turnaround, aided in the pursuit of a different fate than the one Indiana flirted with meeting in its non-conference finale. Woodson put his trust in him and, in return, got back what could suggest a more regular occurrence of acting on that trust.
“He's ready. I've seen it in practice,” Woodson continued. “He hasn't done anything in terms of me not wanting him to play. He's been really good in practice. And he deserves to probably play a little bit more because he is playing well.
“And I thought tonight he came in and gave us the boost that we needed. So we'll continue to keep our eyes on Anthony and see where we go with him.”
If that keened-in eye sees the impact and results the Hoosiers did in victory over Kennesaw State, that’s probably not a bad idea.
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