Indiana Gets a Battle From Portland State, But Hangs On For a Win
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana got a little more than it bargained for with Portland State on Saturday, but the Hoosiers still hung on for a win, beating the Vikings 85-74 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The Hoosiers came into the game as 20-point favorites, but Portland State kept the pressure on them all night, and even trailed by only six points at one point in the second half.
Their 3-point shooting was an issue for the Hoosiers all day long. with starting guards Matt Hauser and Holland Woods each making four long balls. It kept the Vikings in the game, and frustrated Indiana coach Archie Miller.
"To be honest with you, if we don't get our defense going in another direction here, we're going to experience some really hard moments in games,'' Miller said. "We can't get stops. The free-throw line, all you have to do is look at 32 free-throw attempts in the game. That's too many.
"I saw some alarming things out there defensively. This team has to grow up a little bit faster on the defensive end. We are going to have it a whole lot tougher.''
Two things made the difference for Indiana. The Hoosiers handled the Portland State pressure well, and only had 10 turnovers all night. Indiana also had a huge edge on the boards, outrebounding the Vikings 41-24. Indiana had 16 offensive rebounds, something that's been a point of emphasis early in practice.
"It's something we harp on every day in practice,'' said Indiana redshirt sophomore forward Race Thompson, who had 10 points and 9 rebounds . Coach told us go hard to the glass, it changes the game. That's something we do every day.''
Freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis had his first double-double, scoring 13 points and getting 10 rebounds. That's the first of many double-doubles to come, more than like, for the 6-foot-9 leaper.
"In practice, my teammates are always pushing me to rebound," Jackson-Davis said. "We do a lot of rebounding drills, so I thought that was big coming into the game."
Junior guard Al Durham led the Hoosiers with 18 points. Justin Smith had 16 points and eight rebounds, five on the offensive end.
Portland State coach Barret Peery liked what he saw from Archie Miller's Indiana team.
“I think Indiana’s good. I think they have tremendous size and I think they know who they are, and their guys play their roles very well,'' he said. "Archie really has them in the gaps and doing a good job defensively and then they rebound the ball very well.
"They were so good on the offensive glass with their second-chance points. I thought our guys were really good defensively on the half court, but we couldn’t finish some possessions that we needed to. But our guys battled. Give Archie’s team a lot of credit. They really did a good job of taking care of the ball against our pressure, we were only able to turn them over 10 times. We need to do a better job of that, but overall, I thought the guys did a good job.”
Related items
Indiana 85, Portland State 74: Box score
Coach Archie Miller: Postgame comments
