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Indiana responded to an 18-point to Michigan with an excellent performance in a 74-57 win over Penn State.

The most popular narrative in the aftermath of Indiana's game against Michigan was the consistently poor performance at the beginning of games. The starters must have heard that message loud and clear because they responded with a triumphant effort from the opening tip.

The Indiana that showed up Wednesday night was indistinguishable from the team that showed up Sunday against Michigan. Every single player who took the court brought absurd effort on both ends. They put in the work to get open looks and capitalized nearly every time.

The Hoosiers began the game on a 12-0 run after forcing three early turnovers and capitalizing with their own makes. They would continue to make life hard for Penn State on the offensive end -- blowing up their pick-and-roll actions with relentless execution.

Indiana would go on a 17-2 over a six-minute stretch of the first half after recording six turnovers as well as six blocked shots. On the other end, the Hoosiers hit their first six three-point attempts, including two from Xavier Johnson and Tamar Bates individually.

The score at halftime was 46-17 in what was as close to a flawless 20 minutes of college basketball as you'll ever see. Penn State shot just 5-of-30 from the field (16.7%) and was blocked eight times. Indiana, meanwhile, hit 57.1 percent of their shots, including 6-of-8 from three.

Indiana didn't pour it on Penn State in the second half quite like they did in the first, but some regression was inevitable. The energy dropped and Penn State began to knock down some open threes. They would hit nine threes in the second half, narrowing Indiana's dominant lead but never getting close to striking distance.

One of the only negative occurrences of the evening for the home team was an injury to Rob Phinisee. Phinisee, who was dominating the game on defense, went out of the game in the first half after suffering a non-contact injury to his lower right leg. He was helped off the floor and could not put any weight on his foot despite no visual damage on the previous play.

The usual suspects stood out for Indiana from an individual perspective. Trayce Jackson-Davis had 15 points, six rebounds, and four blocks while frontcourt mate Race Thompson recorded a season-high 18 points and six boards of his own.

Xavier Johnson also played a great game, finishing with 19 points, four rebounds, and six assists.

Jalen Pickett was the leading scorer for Penn State, scoring 14 points, all coming in the second half. Myles Dread also had a good second half, scoring all of his nine points in the second half.

John Harrar would finish with a final line of 13 points and nine rebounds.

I wrote before the game that Indiana needed to come out and dominate an inferior Penn State team, and that is exactly what they did. They will look to continue that momentum Saturday as they go to College Park to take on a Maryland team that is beginning to gain some steam in the Big Ten.

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