In its final game before Big Ten play gets started, Indiana trounced the Miami RedHawks 76-57.
While the Hoosiers got a hot shooting start, Miami crawled back to make a game out of this one late in the first half, allowing for it to be a close contest in the opening minutes of the second half as well.
After this, Indiana dominated, as the Hoosiers turned it up on offense and defense to allow for this convincing non-conference victory.
Several Hoosiers were great, as Malik Reneau scored 19, Myles Rice scored 17 and Trey Galloway scored 13 to truly fill it up, especially when it mattered most.
Oumar Ballo also had a sensational performance, scoring 14, while grabbing 18 rebounds and assisting six times for an all-around great game.
While both Luke Skaljac and Eian Elmer were both in double figures for the RedHawks, Indiana was just too much on defense late in the second half, allowing for Miami to go ice cold just as IU was pulling away.
With all that being said, here's how it happened in Indiana's last game before the Minnesota Golden Gophers come to Bloomington for IU's Big Ten opener on Monday.
INDIANA SHOOTS WELL, BUT MIAMI STORMS BACK IN 1ST HALF
Early on, the ball was finding the bottom of the net for the Hoosiers, as they shot at the very impressive clip of 58.3% for the first half, going 14-for-24 from the field.
IU also shot 4-of-9 from three in the first, for a solid 44.4 3-point percentage before halftime, yet the Hoosiers only led by three points going into halftime.
Indiana did dominate in the early going, leading by 10 just four minutes in the game and then was ahead by 12 with less than nine minutes to go in the half, but that's when the RedHawks started to shoot it well.
Right after going down by 12, Miami went on an 8-0 run that included two threes, showing that, despite the poor shooting start, they could fill it up.
IU responded, though, as it went on a 8-0 run of its own to get the game back to a 12 point margin, but then Miami responded once more.
The RedHawks went on their second 8-0 run that had two threes, cutting the lead to four once more.
IU responded once more, although not as well as it did after the first 8-0 run, allowing Miami to hang around for the rest of the half, one that ended with just a 39-36 advantage for the Hoosiers.
Eian Elmer and Reece Potter were both key in these runs for Miami, with Elmer hitting three of his five threes and Potter knocking down two of his three shots from beyond the arc.
Myles Rice led IU with 14 points in the first half on 5-of-6 shooting, really scoring at will when he had an open shot, but turned it over a team-leading three times.
These three giveaways from Rice were a part of the nine turnovers Indiana surrendered in that first half, possibly canceling out the solid shooting early, and allowed Miami to get back into it before halftime.
MIAMI TRIES TO KEEP IT CLOSE, YET IU PULLS AWAY IN 2ND HALF
After halftime, Miami kept it close for awhile, bit Indiana ended up pulling away for the 76-57 victory over the RedHawks.
The Hoosiers never let Miami tie up the game, but they did let MU hang around for several minutes in the second half, as IU led by just five with less than 12 minutes remaining in the game.
This was because of a cold stretch for IU, as it didn't score for almost four minutes in the middle of the half, going on a 0-of-5 stretch from the field.
After this, though, Indiana was able to pull away, thanks to shots starting to fall as the half went on, coupled with shots not falling for the RedHawks.
This resulted in a 17-5 run in favor of IU, with several Hoosiers contributing key baskets, while also playing incredibly sound defense.
The Indiana defense forced Miami to go over six minutes without any points late in the game, going 0-for-10 from the field from around the 10 minute mark all, the way up until there were less than three minutes in the game.
This, coupled with IU being able to make shots from the field and from the charity stripe, resulted in a very comfortable, over 20 point advantage for Mike Woodson's ball club as the game went into the final minutes.
In the second half, IU shot 14-for-28 from the field to Miami's 7-for-30, really driving home just hoe impressive the final half was for the Hoosiers.
This all led to an Indiana victory, a 76-57 win over the Miami RedHawks before conference play gets its start on Monday,
FINAL STATS
–––––
Like this content? Join the conversation on TheHoosier.com's premium message boards and subscribe today!
– Follow TheHoosier on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!
– Subscribe to TheHoosier on YouTube for more content
– Interact with fellow fans on TheHoosier's Premium Football Board and Premium Hoops Board
