Indiana defeated Nebraska, 89-64 on Wednesday in Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis during the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, but didn't do it without a stumble.

And even then, COVID-19 took center-stage near the end of the game.

Read on for the three primary takeaways form a game that was the final Indiana game watched by fans.

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The event that upstaged the game between No. 14-seeded Nebraska and No. 11-seeded Indiana on Wednesday night in Indianapolis was Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg quickly exiting the Nebraska huddle during the final media timeout of the game and later, as Stadium reported following the game, being transported to the hospital for sickness.

Before the game began, the Big Ten had announced that fans would not be permitted into the rest of the Big Ten Tournament games this week and that remaining winter and spring athletic events would also be unattended. Just before halftime, the NBA announced that its season is suspended indefinitely after the Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.

Nebraska didn’t participate in the postgame press conference, and only head coach Archie Miller represented Indiana, as the Hoosier staff wanted to get the players to the team’s hotel as soon as possible following the game.

“We're all crossing our fingers and hoping for the best, which is allowing us to continue to play,” Miller said. “But like I said, when experts speak up, you'd better listen, and I think the NBA just probably put the sporting world on hold. We'll hope for the best, and clearly we're preparing to play tomorrow. Hopefully, that continues on.”

In terms of playing a game in front of no fans, Miller said his team will welcome the challenge, despite the obvious advantage for the home-state fans in Indianapolis. The crowd was clearly an Indiana-heavy group, which wasn’t challenged too much by a team that needed to travel 650 miles to get to the tournament.

Miller harked back to the preseason, when Indiana played a closed scrimmage in Bankers Life Fieldhouse against Marquette.

“We've scrimmaged in here, so we've had some closed-door scrimmages in here the last few years,” Miller said. “Like I told those guys, we've already done it once. So we'll play the game with no one in here, and we'll let it rip.”

Indiana had been getting decent and steadily improving production from many of its 11 scholarship players on the roster leading into the Big Ten Tournament. Even though Nebraska was down to seven scholarship players, missing two of its top-three scorers and fielding two football players on the court, Indiana needed 10 of its 11 scholarship players Wednesday.

“I'm proud of our depth. I thought we had a lot of guys,” Miller said. “We were committed to playing a lot of guys tonight, and we had a lot of guys play valuable minutes and get some things done.”

By halftime, all 10 contributors had hit double-digit scoring, and by the end of the game, five Hoosiers scored at least 10 points. Even walk-ons Cooper Bybee and Nate Childress saw action.

Trayce Jackson-Davis, who was expected to have a big night with as much as Nebraska was surrendering in size, scored 11 points and brought 17 rebounds, but players like Armaan Franklin (13 points, eight rebounds, three assists) and Jerome Hunter (three points, four rebounds, one block) played outside of themselves in ways that could be expected against a team in as poor of shape as Nebraska but were no less needed.

Franklin brought a lot of energy off the bench when Indiana came out flat defensively, taking a few charges and adding some physicality. After scoring 17 points with four three-pointers against Notre Dame in Bankers Life Fieldhouse in December, Franklin logged his best game since.

“I'm proud of Armaan,” Miller said. “Here in the last three or four weeks, his role really hasn't diminished in our eyes, but his minutes have gone down. He stays with it. He's a great kid.”

For about 16 minutes, it appeared Indiana might suffer a loss that would put its NCAA Tournament hopes in jeopardy, trailing by as many as six points in the first half. Indiana was sloppy on offense and soft on defense, and for a seven-minute stretch midway through the first half, the game never seemed further away from the Hoosiers, as the Huskers went on a 14-4 run.

But a 16-1 run to finish out the final four minutes of the first half, followed by a 15-4 run to start the second half, pushed Indiana far enough ahead to withstand a later push from Nebraska’s three-pronged attack in Haanif Cheatham, Kevin Cross and Jervay Green, which combined for 55 of Nebraska’s 64 points.

“Nebraska started off loose, and they were playing fast, and we weren't ready for that early,” Miller said. “But I thought our guys did a good job of kind of hanging in there, and right when we were able to get a few stops, we capitalized.”

The short stumble certainly stains the confidence in Indiana as it moves into Thursday’s game against Penn State, but playing through the second half run that threatened Indiana’s 20-point lead, dwindling to nine points with fewer than 10 minutes remaining.

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