Lack of Shooting Slows Morgan, Seals Indiana's Fate Against Buckeyes
Bloomington, Ind. -- There wasn't much senior forward Juwan Morgan could do to get his offense going in Indiana's 55-52 loss to Ohio State Sunday in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Every time he touched the ball, there were two Buckeyes in his face, sometimes three. Ohio State brought those doubles from the wing, from the top of the key, and from anywhere else you can think of.
Morgan kicked the ball out, as he should, when double teams came, hitting open shooters, readying them to fire. What frequently happened next is all too familiar for this iteration of Indiana basketball.
The Hoosiers missed.
They missed long and they missed short. Eventually, they stopped missing because they stopped taking the shots.
Indiana head coach Archie Miller noted after the game that the Hoosiers inability to shoot caused issues for Morgan.
"They did a really good job sagging under, keeping the bigs in the paint and post trapping some," he said. "They were going to make us make some open shots and some perimeters, and we didn't until too late."
Indiana finished the game with only six makes on 20 attempts from beyond the arc, and half of those came from freshman guard Romeo Langford, who shot seven times from deep.
Miller said the Hoosiers needed those shots to fall to help open the floor for Morgan and junior center De'Ron Davis.
"Throughout the course of this game the perimeter shooting from three needed to be there for us," he said. "I'm not sure as you go back and watch the film how many good (3-point attempts) we got, how many rhythm ones we got, but we needed to be able to make a few tonight to alleviate that pressure in the paint."
If Indiana made one extra shot from deep, they force the game to overtime. Make two and they're leaving the arena with a win.
Instead, the Hoosiers left the floor with another missed opportunity, and their 11th loss of the season.
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