In Indiana's matchup against Rutgers, its first contest of 2025, Ace Bailey was special. The 6'10'' freshman from Chattanooga, TN scored 39 points and put on a show, yet no other Scarlet Knight scored in double figures.
While Indiana just couldn't contain the 5-star forward, it did a tremendous job making sure no one else on Rutgers would get his, leading to the 84-74 Hoosier win at Assembly Hall.
"He's special. He's a good player and he's young. If he continues to work, he could be pretty special. I mean, we kind of threw a few things at him, but he made some tough shots tonight and that's what great players do," Mike Woodson said postgame, giving praise to Bailey, who's 39 points weren't enough against IU.
Again, this was because Bailey was the only player dressed in red to score over nine points, which typically isn't the recipe for success in Big Ten play, and it was no different against Indiana.
Players like Jamichael Davis, Jeremiah Williams and Lathan Sommerville all had spurts of scoring, but none of them could get it going when it mattered most. This, along with the absence of other star freshman Dylan Harper, spelled doom for Rutgers.
To go along with this, the Hoosiers actually defended Bailey better than one would assume considering his 39 points, as the talented forward was just making tough shot after tough shot, with IU's defending never being the issue.
Making Bailey really work for his 39, plus defending every other Scarlet Knight extremely well was the recipe for success on defense for Indiana, leading it to a win and moving it to 2-1 in conference play.
Bailey wasted no time to get going, scoring 16 of his team's first 23 points, all within the first ten minutes of the game.
This secured the Scarlet Knights their largest lead of the game, seven points, while making this one seem like another disappointment for the Hoosiers early on.
After this though, Bailey cooled off, scoring just three points in the final ten minutes of the first half, allowing IU to go on a 10-0 run to take the lead back,
While, at this point, the Indiana offense was clicking, Anthony Leal can be given the most credit for this run, as his defending of Bailey late in the first half allowed for the Hoosiers to finally gain some momentum.
While Leal scored just five points, his contributions are almost always about what doesn't show up on the box score, and it was no different today.
"Anthony is one of our best defenders and when I got to go to someone off the bench to guard a key guy, because I thought in that one stretch right before the half, I think he only scored one point against Anthony. He had done all his damage early and... but again, he's a hell of a player. He did a lot of good things for his ball club tonight," Woodson said postgame, really driving home just how important Leal was to Indiana's win.
Leal added on to this, mentioning that Bailey is "obviously super skilled, tough match-up, as you could tell" but that he had a gameplan when he was matched up with him.
He explained this by saying "we knew he liked to favorite his right hand, so any time I was on him I just tried to take away space, get physical on him and force him to his left hand knowing he's going to make some tough shots."
This worked to perfection, as Bailey's limited numbers in the last 10 minutes of the first half flipped the script, and allowed Indiana to turn a seven point deficit into a seven point advantage at the half.
Bailey's cold end to the first half didn't just stop there, though, as it took over eight minutes of action after halftime for the freshman to score his first points of the second half and, by the time he did, IU's lead ballooned to 18.
With Bailey not being able to score effectively for just about 18 minutes of gametime, there was a 25 point swing in favor of the Hoosiers, showing just now inept the Rutgers offense was when Bailey wasn't having his way.
After the game, Bailey said that he would like more of his teammates to be successful, saying "we’ve got to get more out of everybody." He wasn't knocking any of his guys but, because this one against IU made it painfully obvious, he realized that he needs more support if Rutgers wants to win in tough road environments like Assembly Hall.
While it looked bleak for Rutgers, it and Bailey wouldn't give in as, after IU got out to its large lead, the Scarlet Knights stormed back, going on a 14-2 run to cut a once 18 point game into a 68-62 point contest with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Eight of the 14 points during the run were Bailey's, as he finally was able to get going again, with back-to-back tough 3-pointers putting an exclamation point on the Scarlet Knight's comeback.
Now, with the game hanging in the balance, Indiana was on the ropes, but the other Scarlet Knights just couldn't come through once again.
After it was 68-62 Hoosiers, Bailey scored 12 points, while the rest of the Knights scored exactly zero, allowing IU to pull away with its offense playing well down the stretch.
This resulted in a 84-74 final score after the buzzer sounded, giving Indiana a much-needed win as it moves forward in conference play, but not without Ace Bailey leaving his mark on this one.
His 39 points on 16-for-29 shooting and 4-of-8 shooting from three was spectacular, but the difference was that no other Scarlet Knight could get it going.
It's tough to win as a one-dimensional basketball team, and Rutgers proved it against Indiana, the Hoosiers improving to 2-1 in B1G play behind its superb defense against everyone not named Ace Bailey,
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