Indiana returned to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday for the first home game since Illinois thumped the Hoosiers 94-69 on Jan. 14. The result Sunday?
A closer contest, but a defeat nonetheless.
The Maryland Terrapins (16-5, 6-4) came into Assembly Hall and narrowly escaped Indiana (14-7, 5-5) with a final score of 79-78.
The game came down to the final 22 seconds as Indiana led by two and Trey Galloway was headed to the charity stripe. The career 61% foul line shooter had a chance to extend the lead to four.
Instead, Galloway missed the front end of the one-and-one, opening the door for Maryland to tie the contest. Out of the Kevin Willard led timeout, Rodney Rice received a handoff from Julian Reese on the left wing, hoisted an off-balance 3, and drained the eventual game winner.
Indiana was unable to find a good shot on two consecutive inbounds and heartbreak filled the arena once again when Myles Rice’s 3-point attempt fell short.
Multiple substitutions caused confusion for the Hoosiers on the final play as they did not possess a timeout. Myles Rice took the blame postgame.
“Everything happens so fast,” he said. “It's not only just the team, but especially me, to be cool, calm and collected and be in that headspace to know, like I said, make sure everybody's in their spots and make sure we know what we're doing.”
Falling short has been a common theme with the Hoosiers this season.
“It was just the little things that we didn’t execute down the homestretch,” Indiana head coach Mike Woodson said.
With four minutes remaining in the second half, Myles Rice hit a right-wing, pull-up 3-pointer to give Indiana its first lead since they led 19-18 with 11:16 remaining in the first half.
The roof of Assembly Hall nearly exploded.
“It’s a game of runs, and we were able to go on a run there,” Anthony Leal said postgame. “But we have to be able to finish.”
Leal was referring to the 19-6 run the Hoosiers went on between the 8:55 and 3:07 marks of the second half that saw Indiana claw back into the contest. This fight has been seldomly seen from the Hoosiers this season, and was a clear refresher to the crowd at Assembly Hall.
This game was undoubtedly the loudest and most energized the Hoosier faithful have been all season, a stark contrast to the “Fire Woodson” chants that roared throughout the contest against the Fighting Illini.
Rodney Rice led all scorers with 23 points on 8-for-13 shooting including his game winner, while Myles Rice and Mackenzie Mgbako both contributed 16 points for Indiana.
Indiana struggled to consistently get stops throughout the afternoon, but conversations will revolve around Indiana not fouling on the possession that Rice drained the 3, as they had a second half foul to give.
This is just another example of Indiana and Woodson struggling to make winning plays at crucial points late in games.
“Then we just didn't get a key stop with a foul to give,” Woodson said. “The ball scrambled out. The initial thrust of their offense, I thought we played it well. Then when the ball kind of spurted around, we just didn't get up and take the foul like we should have.”
Indiana has dropped two straight at home and now heads into an extremely tough stretch of games including four straight games against ranked teams, three of which will be on the road.
For Indiana to have any chance to right the ship this season they must eliminate late mistakes, especially after fighting so hard and so relentlessly all afternoon.
