Texas' Stifling Defense Buries Indiana in Maui Invitational Semifinals
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — It's always difficult to predict early-season games on back-to-back days. In holiday tournaments, teams can look great one day, and terrible the next.
That was the script for Indiana on Tuesday. The Hoosiers could never get anything going against an aggressive Texas defense, and the No. 17-ranked Longhorns cruised to an easy 66-44 victory in the first semifinal of the Maui Invitational at the Harrah's Cherokee Center. It was a far cry from Indiana's easy 21-point win over Providence in the first round.
"They took us out of everything we tried to do, and we didn't really have an answer for it,'' Indiana coach Archie Miller said. "They were very aggressive and made it hard for us to reverse the ball.
"And when we got good looks around the rim, we didn't make them. We didn't play very well, but a lot of that's on Texas. They were very good defensively.''
With the win, Texas advances to Wednesday's 4 p.m. ET championship game against North Carolina, a 67-63 winner over Stanford on Tuesday afternoon. Indiana and Stanford will play in the third-place game at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Indiana (2-1) was never really in the game. Texas (3-0) scored the first six points of the game and had a double-digit lead after a 10-0 run midway through the first period. The Hoosiers were confounded by Texas' aggressive man-to-man defense, and struggled to get clean looks at the basket. They were just 5-for-23 shooting from the field in the first half, and didn't get much better. They finished the game 11-for-46 overall, just 24.4 percent.
They trailed by as many as 24 points in the second half.
"Our goal was to keep [Trayce] Jackson-Davis and [Race] Thompson combined under 24 points and they had 21, so I was happy with that,'' Texas coach Shaka Smart said. "We knew they'd go inside early and often, because they've both been playing well, but we made it tough on them,''
Jackson-Davis was the team's leading scorer, finishing with 17 points. Points were hard to come by early for him too, though he did get some clean looks more often in the second half. He was 5-for-12 from the field, and did well at the free throw line, making 7 of 9 shots.
"I think it's just me rushing my shots, to be honest,'' Trayce said. "I've just got to keep my confidence up. It's all about doing what we do. That wasn't our offense that you saw today. We were too soft with the ball and we let their pressure get to us.''
The Hoosiers have to get over this one quickly. There's another game against a quality foe on Wednesday afternoon.
"In tournaments like these, you've got to move on. We've got another game in 24 hours,'' guard Armaan Franklin said.
Thompson, who had a career day on Monday with 22 points and 13 rebounds, scored only four points. Indiana was outrebounded 47-29.
Indiana's bench was just 1-for-11 from the field and scored only a combined six points.
"We really wanted a lot more on the defensive end after what we did yesterday (in the 78-76 win over Davidson),'' Smart said. 'We challenged them, and we've got capable guys. And if we can improve our defending without fouling, we'll be even better.''
"We owned it about how we played yesterday. We wanted to make it tough on them and carry it over for 40 minutes,'' said Texas point guard Matt Coleman, who led the Longhorns with 16 points. "We knew we wanted to take them out of what they like to run, and I thought we did a really good job of that.''
Indiana senior guard Al Durham went down with an apparent ankle injury midway through the second half. Durham had eight points when he was injured driving to the basket. He was 2-for-7 from the field and made 4-of-5 free throws.
Miller said he didn't get a chance to talk to Durham after the game, but said he was doubtful for Wednesday's third-place game because of the ankle injury.
Related stories on Indiana basketball
- TOM BREW COLUMN: Texas loss was ugly, but it's also just one game for the Hoosiers in early December. CLICK HERE
- LIVE BLOG: Follow the game in real time. CLICK HERE
- BILL WALTON NEEDS TO GO: Publisher Tom Brew wonders why ESPN still has Bill Walton doing games. He was awful on Monday's broadcast and he needs to go. CLICK HERE
- THOMPSON CHANGES HIS GAME: It's Race Thompson's fourth year at Indiana, and his time has finally arrived. He has a new body and, even more importantly, new-found confidence that he can play at a high level. Tom Brew column. CLICK HERE
- GAME 2, INDIANA BEATS PROVIDENCE: Indiana dominates on the boards and runs away from Providence in the first round of the Maui Invitational. CLICK HERE
- GAME 1, INDIANA BEATS TENNESSEE TECH: In the Hoosiers' season-opener in Assembly Hall, Trayce Jackson-Davis scores 26 points to lead IU to an 89-59 victory over Tennessee Tench. CLICK HERE
- COMPLETE INDIANA SCHEDULE: Here is the full Indiana basketball schedule for the 2020-21 season, including links to stories on games already played. CLICK HERE
