Indiana Stops Siena, Heads Into Holidays at 10-3

Written by: TJ Inman

The Indiana Hoosiers (10-3) finished the non-conference portion of their schedule with a comfortable victory over the Siena Saints (9-4), rolling to a 46-20 halftime lead before cruising into their holiday break with the 81-60 final score. As he has done often recently, Lamar Wilkerson led the way for Indiana with 19 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in the first half. Tucker DeVries joined him in double-figures with 12 points at the half and Nick Dorn added eight points off the bench as IU hit seven shots from beyond the arc and went 11-12 from the free throw line.

After another impressive opening half, IU’s struggles in the second half of games continued as Siena cut the 26-point lead to just 15 at 54-39. After a string of missed shots and poor defensive possessions, Darian DeVries called a timeout and noticeably tore into his team. The Hoosiers responded well with Lamar Wilkerson getting back into the scoring column with four straight, Nick Dorn hitting an open three from the corner and Tayton Conerway driving for a layup to restore the lead to 23 points at the eight-minute media timeout.

Excessive foul calls slowed the pace of the game to a crawl in the second half and Siena was in the bonus for more than ten minutes and consistently got to the foul line, ending up with 28 free throw attempts. Siena refused to go away but Tayton Conerway kept the Saints at bay, driving to the basket to finish at the rim or drop it off for his teammates to dunk. The visitors did not get closer than 15 points and IU finished the game ahead by 21 points.

After a dynamite first half, Lamar Wilkerson battled foul trouble in the second half and only ended the game with 23 points. Conerway was the star of the second half and finished with 16 points and four assists. Tucker DeVries had 16 and Nick Dorn had 11. DeVries led the team with 11 rebounds and the Hoosiers bested Siena 41-29 on the boards. Indiana only made 9 of 24 three-pointers but they did knock down 26 of 30 free throw attempts in a game that lacked any kind of rhythm or flow in the second half.

IU does not play again until January 4 when they host the Washington Huskies to begin a true gauntlet of a Big Ten campaign.