By Matt St. Charles
Conor Enright is not one to back down from a challenge. When the country’s leading scorer, Kansas State’s PJ Haggerty, was next on the docket for Indiana, Enright was more than excited for the challenge.
“Just putting him on somebody like [Haggerty]; he didn’t back down, man,” Tayton Conerway said. “He wanted all the smoke. He’s been talking about it for three days. He was excited for this game. He wanted to show what he could do, so stepping up to the challenge, he executed, so it worked out.”
Haggerty, averaging 28 points coming into Tuesday night, was held in check all game by Enright’s effort. Although he ended with 16 points, it came on 7-17 shooting, and there wasn’t an open look to be found. Enright’s ability to stay in front of Haggerty, even preventing him from catching the ball on plenty of possessions, was one of the driving forces in the 86-69 win.
“A lot of people just see it during the games and stuff,” Conerway added. “But he’s like that in practice. He’s like that everywhere. That’s just Conor. I told him on the bench, ‘You’re one of my favorite players to play with. You make basketball so much easier.’”
Basketball, of course, is always a game of runs, but that was ever apparent in Assembly Hall on Tuesday. The Hoosiers jumped out to a 20-4 lead early, just for that to shrink to 22-20 late in the first half. A short spurt, highlighted by 3s from Enright and Lamar Wilkerson, gave Indiana a 12-point lead at the half.
But it was sloppy. IU shot 22 3s in the first half, was out-rebounded 18-15, and the game had a combined 21 turnovers–eight for Indiana, 13 for Kansas State.
In the second half, there was a concerted effort to dominate the paint, and Reed Bailey was the focal point of that. The senior scored 14 after the break, finishing with 21, and made 13 of his 15 free throws. So what sparked the uptick for Bailey?
“Just normal coaching stuff,” Darian DeVries said with a smile. “Just, ‘Hey, be more aggressive.’ So he did. Good job, Reed.
“I thought Reed really took the challenge of, ‘Hey, there’s some open space,’” DeVries added. They were pressed out pretty good, making some of our ball reversals a little tougher, so we wanted guys to create a little more room for our drivers to go…Of the six games we’ve played, I thought, by far, especially in that second half, this was the most aggressive he’s been, and that was the thing that excited us about him as we saw him this summer and fall.”
Paired with Conerway’s 19 points, 11 of which came in the second half, and the Hoosiers were able not just to survive, but to thrive on a night where Tucker DeVries (nine points) and Lamar Wilkerson (14 points) didn’t dominate.
“We’ve got a bunch of dudes that just know how to play basketball,” Bailey said. “[Dudes] that have been doing it their whole life. The coaching staff, they instill confidence in us every single day to go do what we can do. Tucker having nine points, that’s not going to happen too many times, but I hope he has trust in us to be able to pick that up because everybody on this court can do what they can do.”
This Indiana team is certainly still figuring things out as they go, but the prospect of what could be is exciting. Despite Haggerty not lighting the world on fire, the Hoosiers took blow after blow from a Big 12 team tonight, and although the stars didn’t have their best games, they still won by 17.
“The experience helps a lot,” Conerway said. “If you play a good team, they’re bound to go on their run. But how you respond is probably going to be the answer to the outcome, so just sticking together and definitely picking it up on defense, having each other’s backs, we knew we’d come out with a win.”
There are certainly more runs that will go both for and against Indiana this season, but it’s a group that can absorb them and throw a counter.