National Basketball Association
Indiana 87, Liberty 48
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, November 19, 2016
Where: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
Officials:
# Brian Dorsey, # Robert Riley, # Brooks Wells
Attendance:
12537
By The Sports Xchange
Indiana coach Tom Crean was well aware of his team's turnovers. He even heard about it from his daughter, who was watching another sport.
Even with 26 turnovers, the sixth-ranked Hoosiers were good enough with the 79 possessions they had Saturday night.
James Blackmon scored 20 points as Indiana overcame its sloppiness with the ball and rolled to an 87-48 wire-to-wire rout of Liberty in the Indiana Classic at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind.
"I'll focus on that tomorrow. I'm going to make sure -- I've already had my -- my oldest daughter, who has become -- she makes all of you look mild right now with her critiques," Crean said.
"So already saw that message from her. And she's not even here. She's at the Michigan-Indiana game. I get it from all levels. But to me everything's correctible, and their attitudes are great and we'll get those things fixed as we go."
The Hoosiers (3-0) have accumulated 60 turnovers in their first three games and their starting lineup committed 18 of those against Liberty's "pack-line" defense.
Blackmon had five turnovers, but it became an afterthought as he hit five 3-pointers and 7 of 12 shots overall in his third straight game with at least 20 points.
"I'm going to watch a couple of them," Blackmon said. "I think that I forced a couple of passes that I tried to get into the paint, just not overlooking into the paint."
Robert Johnson added 13 points and OG Anunboy had 10 points and 11 rebounds for his first career-double-double as Indiana compensated for sloppy ball-handling by shooting 61 percent from the field (28 of 46) and making 9 of 21 3-pointers.
"We work on footwork all the time," Crean said. "We're hopping a little bit. And I think we're just in a rush. I think we're playing a little too fast at times. And we're trying to make the move too fast."
Ray Chen scored eight points for Liberty (1-2), which shot 29.7 percent from the field (19 of 64) and misfired on 22 of 27 3-point attempts. Leading scorer John Dawson was held to two points as the Flames' starting lineup combined to shoot 8 of 31.
Indiana scored the game's first nine points and took its first double-digit lead at 12-2 on a 3-pointer by Thomas Bryant with about 14 1/2 minutes remaining. It took Liberty 5:02 to make its first basket and another 2:44 to make its second hoop.
"The game seemed like it lasted for four days," Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said. "I cannot remember the start. Indiana is really impressive."
Liberty briefly cut the deficit to under double digits at 15-7 on a layup by Caleb Homesley with 11:34 remaining. Less than a minute later, Curtis Jones hit a 14-footer, triggering a 24-0 run that spanned nearly eight minutes.
During the spurt, the Flames missed 14 straight shots while Blackmon scored eight points. Blackmon had 11 points as the Hoosiers took a 45-19 lead at halftime.
NOTES: Indiana sophomore F Juwan Morgan made his career start after playing his first 32 games as a reserve. Morgan averaged about nine minutes per game as a freshman last year but played 15 and 26 minutes in Indiana's first two games. ... The Hoosiers are 4-0 against teams from the Big South Conference. ... Liberty is 0-4 against teams from the Big Ten conference and has not scored more than 53 points in those games. ... Saturday was the 13th time Liberty faced a ranked team and Indiana was the Flames' highest-ranked opponent since an 89-58 loss to then-No. 3 Florida on Jan. 2, 2007. ... Indiana's Josh Newkirk and Liberty's Lovell Cabbil were whistled for double technical fouls early in the second half. ... Newkirk lost a tooth during the second half.
Top Game Performances
Liberty |
|
Indiana |
Ray Chen 8 |
Scoring |
James Blackmon Jr 20 |
Caleb Homesley 3 |
Assists |
James Blackmon Jr 3 |
Myo Baxter-Bell 3 |
Rebounds |
OG Anunoby 11 |
Ray Chen 4 |
Free Throws Made |
Thomas Bryant 4 |
Lovell Cabbil 3 |
Steals |
James Blackmon Jr 1 |
Ezra Talbert 1 |
Blocks |
OG Anunoby 2 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Liberty
|
48 |
29.7 |
5-27 |
5-14 |
9 |
18 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
Indiana
|
87 |
60.9 |
9-21 |
22-31 |
16 |
52 |
5 |
5 |
26 |