Indiana Basketball Collapses Behind Turnovers, Rebounding in Loss at Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. — With his hands planted firmly on his hips, Indiana men's basketball coach Darian DeVries leaned forward, dropping his eyes to the hardwood.

DeVries had watched sixth-year senior guard Tayton Conerway take an ill-advised 3-pointer from the left wing early in the shot clock — which, like many of Indiana's shots Saturday night at Rupp Arena, clanked off the iron.

Indiana's once-lively 7-point lead was long gone. So, too, its momentum.

DeVries appeared to feel the weight of it all as he looked up at the scoreboard, which showed a 56-51 Kentucky lead. Then, DeVries looked left and watched Kentucky forward Mouhamed Dioubate finish an and-one layup to extend the Wildcats' lead to 58-51, sending Big Blue Nation into a boisterous frenzy.

A snowstorm of momentum suddenly turned into an avalanche, and the Hoosiers (8-3) never stopped it enough to draw closer than 6 points the rest of the way, falling 72-60 to Kentucky (7-4) at Rupp Arena.

Indiana led 49-42 with 14 minutes in the second half. Then, Kentucky used a 23-5 run to seize control and bury the Hoosiers in their own turnover-filled mess.

"I thought the second half, Kentucky certainly turned up the pressure and was able to get into us and we didn't respond well enough," DeVries said postgame. "We turned the ball over too much, and live ball turnovers against them are really hard because now they're out in transition, playing in space.

"So, the turnovers and the offensive rebounding, I mean, that flipped the game around that second half."

Indiana committed a season-high 18 turnovers Saturday night, 12 of which came in the second half, and the Wildcats scored 18 points off turnovers in the final 20 minutes. The Hoosiers turned the ball over on five consecutive possessions in the second half, during which their 49-44 lead evolved into a 50-49 deficit.

Turnovers came from a wide variety of sources. Conerway committed four, as did senior forward Tucker DeVries, while senior forward Sam Alexis logged three. Both of junior forward Nick Dorn's turnovers came while Indiana's lead vanished in the middle of the second half.

Darian DeVries said the turnovers were a combination of several factors.

"I thought we left our feet a few times," DeVries said. "I thought we just got on our heels a little bit and didn't play as disciplined as we needed to. As the crowd got cranked up and things, that's the time where you got to really dig in a little bit more. Your screen's got to be better, you got to play off two feet more."

To cap the rash of five turnovers in as many series, Indiana had a dismal two-possession stretch where Kentucky grabbed five offensive rebounds and took an advantage it never relinquished. The Hoosiers won the rebounding battle, 37-34, but the Wildcats earned 18 second-chance points to Indiana's 6.

"They just went and got them," DeVries said. "And we didn't do a good enough job of creating space and getting bodies and going and securing the ball."

DeVries admitted Indiana didn't respond well to Kentucky's uptick in physicality, effort and aggression in the second half. The Hoosiers shot only 6 of 22 from the field and 1 of 10 from beyond the arc while their upset hopes crashed and burned.

But Tucker DeVries, who finished with 15 points but went only 4-for-13 shooting and 1 of 9 from distance, said he didn't think Indiana's inefficiency from the field was the biggest problem.

"The turnovers and obviously the offensive rebounds they had, especially in the second half," Tucker DeVries said postgame. "I take full responsibility for both of those areas. As a group, I think when they pick up the pressure, I think we just need to really focus on our execution a little bit more on every possession."

With better second-half execution in both categories, DeVries said he feels Indiana could've overcome its woeful shooting night. Instead, the Hoosiers, who enjoyed one of the best offensive performances in program history in a 113-72 win over Penn State on Dec. 9, fell victim to their worst outing of the season Saturday night.

Indiana scored a season-low 60 points, shot a season-worst 34.1% from the field, made a season-low four 3-pointers on a season-worst 16.7% clip, dished a season-low eight assists and committed a season-high 18 turnovers.

The Hoosiers showed their ceiling against Penn State. They showed their floor against Kentucky. There's a startling contrast between the two, and Indiana's lack of a consistent post presence — Alexis scored 6 points and grabbed five rebounds while senior forward Reed Bailey didn't score and took only one shot — gives it few answers when shots aren't falling from the perimeter.

Saturday night's pitfall marked more than a sobering reminder of Indiana's worst self. It was a chance for an early-tenure, statement-making rivalry win for Darian DeVries, and perhaps more relevantly, an opportunity to add another marker to a non-conference resume lacking glamour.

Now, the Hoosiers have a week — of both final exams and team practices — to regroup before finishing their out-of-conference slate with matchups against Chicago State and Siena on Dec. 20 and Dec. 22, respectively.

Whether there's a solution capable of fixing the Hoosiers' flaws remains to be seen — but they have plenty of time, and reason, to soul-search in the week ahead.

"(The) good thing is we get a good week here before we play again," Tucker DeVries said, "to really dial in on some of those areas that we've maybe lacked in the beginning."

Indiana needs to find it sooner than later, because after Saturday night's second-half collapse, it won't have a shining non-conference victory to hang its hat on.

The Hoosiers' road to March Madness still exists. But their margin for error took a hit, if only slightly, as turnovers piled up, fans' chants of "Hoosier Daddy" rang louder and a once-promising lead diminished to ashes in a demoralizing loss in Rupp Arena.