Indiana Falls to No. 8 Wisconsin in Double Overtime
MADISON, Wis. – Indiana had chance after chance to erase its long losing streak at Wisconsin on Thursday night, but a pair of Tyler Wahl three-pointers late in the second overtime sealed the deal for the Badgers in a thrilling 80-73 victory.
Wahl, a sophomore from Lakeville, Minn., who was averaging only 4.3 points per game coming in, made back-to-back daggers to stretch Wisconsin's one-point lead to seven at 77-70. Indiana, which hadn't won here since 1998, couldn't counter down the stretch and lost for the 18th straight time in the Kohl Center.
For the No. 8-ranked Badgers, it was a great escape, and a much-needed one too after losing last week at home to Maryland. With the win, Wisconsin is now 10-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten, second behind Michigan.
Indiana is now 2-3 in the Big Ten and 7-5 overall. It was a hard loss to swallow too, because it spoiled a tremendous night by sophomore Trayce Jackson-Davis, who had 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting and 12 rebounds. It was his fourth 20/10 game of the season.
But just coming close wasn't enough for the Hoosiers. Not even close.
"Our mission was to come up here to win, not just play a close game,'' Indiana senior guard Al Durham said. "Good teams adjust and they took things away from us (in overtime). They were dropping and switching depending who was in the screen, and we had to find ways to find the mismatch. We just didn't do it enough.
"The Big Ten is a gauntlet and we just have to go forward. We have to go to Nebraska and get a win there now.''
Jackson-Davis also had four huge assists and helped the Hoosiers erase a 12-point deficit midway through the first half. They had a long stretch of solid offensive play where they made 14 of 20 shots from the field and took the lead late for the first time at 52-50 when Al Durham scored on a layup with 7:21 to go.
The Hoosiers led until the 2:46 mark when Nate Reuvers scored on a layup to make it 57-56, Wisconsin. Indiana went ahead on a Rob Phinisee three, and then went ahead again a few seconds later on a Jerome Hunter dunk, but Wisconsin's D'Mitrik Trice hit a jumper with 21 seconds to go for force overtime. Indiana couldn't get a final shot off on a play that fell apart.
Indiana jumped out in the first overtime on a three-pointer by Anthony Leal, who had his best night as a Hoosier. The freshman from Bloomington had 9 points and played a season-high 35 minutes. Indiana took the lead on an and-one by Durham, but then Trice hit another game-tying shot on the other end with 10 seconds to go to force a second overtime.
"Anthony works his behind off for us, so tonight wasn't a surprise to me. He's the hardest-working guy on our team,'' Durham said. 'He'll continue to step up for us as well.''
It was all Wahl in the second overtime, and those two three-pointers closed the deal. "Those two threes kind of broke down our defense in the second overtime,'' Miller said.
Indiana struggled to get good looks in the final overtime period, too. It was a frustrating finish to an offensive night that was mostly good.
"Our execution late is what killed us,'' Indiana coach Archie Miller said. "We played well, but I'm disappointed for our guys with how it turned out. They all played really hard tonight.''
Indiana's guards did a great job of breaking down Wisconsin's usually tough defense most of the night. Durham finished with 15 points and Phinisee had 10. They also combined for 11 assists.
Indiana played without sophomore guard Armaan Franklin, who missed the game with an ankle injury suffered early in Monday's win over Maryland. The Hoosiers play again on Sunday at Nebraska.
Without Franklin, guys like Leal and Jerome Hunter really stepped up. That's an encouraging sign going forward.
"The guys we rode with in the second half helped us stay in the game,'' Miller said. "Anthony Leal really helped us, and I thought Jerome had his best game. Without Armaan, we really needed guys to step up and I feel like we got that tonight."
Miller rode his veterans. Jackson-Davis and Durham both played 49 minutes and Phinisee played 48 of the 50 minutes.
''Trayce was very confident and emotional in our timeouts. He played 49 minutes, but he wasn't coming out,'' Miller said. "Their ball-screen defense was better late, and they were doing more switching as well, which took some things away from us.
"We had our chances to pop it inside, but we only shot eight free throws. At the end of the day, they stepped up and we couldn't get downhill at the end.'
