Houston and Rice net nice wins, but TSU and HBU fall to ranked foes.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Ninth-ranked Indiana stayed focused on the task at hand.
With a huge, upcoming matchup against No. 16 Butler looming, the Hoosiers made sure they didn’t look past Houston Baptist on Saturday.
James Blackmon Jr. scored 18 points, and Robert Johnson added 16 as Indiana rolled to a 103-61 victory.
Indiana (8-1) started slowly, twice trailing the Huskies (3-5) in the first eight minutes. The Hoosiers, trailing 12-10, put together a 21-2 run over the next six minutes to prevent the Huskies from keeping the game close enough to flirt with a potential upset.
Indiana led 42-27 at halftime and outscored HBU 30-15 through the first 10 minutes of the second half.
“I think the second half, we just decided to really sit down and get stops on defense and string stops together. And I think when we do that, that allows us to get out in transition and get easy baskets,” Johnson said. “I think it translated well for us.”
Thomas Bryant finished with nine points and 13 rebounds for the Hoosiers, who outrebounded the Huskies 45-31.
Indiana ran its offense with a heavy emphasis on ball movement, getting 33 field goals off 19 assists. Zach Roberts had four assists for the Hoosiers.
“I think a big focus this week was to — little less dribbling, a little quicker decision-making and just get the ball out, get the ball in front of us,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “(Zach) moves the ball. He’s such a willing mover, such a willing passer, such a ball mover.”
HBU trailed by as many as 42 points, and the Hoosiers’ bench outscored the Huskies 37-9.
Colter Lasher scored 18 points for Houston Baptist, which shot just 37 percent from the field (25-of-66). The Huskies also struggled from beyond the arc, missing 15 of their 17 3-point attempts.
“We weren’t shooting the 3-pointer nearly as much as we normally do,” HBU coach Ron Cottrell said. “We only shot 17 3-pointers tonight because we were trying to pound it inside. We wanted to try and finish some plays and get to the free-throw line. We weren’t successful in doing that.”