ROSEMONT, Ill. — For the first 20 minutes, not much changed for the Indiana State men’s basketball team on Saturday … except the caliber of opponent.
ISU missed shots and made many of the same mistakes on the defensive end and in the paint as it did in its 0-3 start. Only this time, ISU was playing DePaul, and the result was a 23-point first half deficit that seemed destined to lead to a rout.
The final score? DePaul won 75-70. ISU’s second half wake-up call was as inspiring as its first half struggles were ugly.
It left the Sycamores encouraged on one hand, frustrated on the other. The second half revival also illustrated to many what they’d been lacking to date in what is now an 0-4 start.
“This game showed us that we definitely shouldn’t have had those other losses,” said ISU point guard Tyler Cutter, referring to ISU defeats against Northern Illinois, North Texas and Murray State. “If we’re down [23] to a Big East school, come all the way back and have a chance to tie it, we should never have lost those other games we did. The game showed us the intensity we need to bring to every game.”
Both teams were Jekyll-and-Hyde. The Sycamores scored 19 in the first half and shot 29.6 percent from the field, including 0-for-10 from 3-point range. In the second half, ISU scored 51 and shot 52.9 percent from the field. DePaul was almost as extreme in its shooting — the Blue Demons shot 48.5 percent in the first half, 29.4 percent in the second.
“It’s a mix and match of everything good and bad you can possibly imagine from the team today. This game was a nutshell of how we’ve played,” ISU coach Kevin McKenna said. “We had a lot of energy and enthusiasm in the second half. We couldn’t buy a shot in the first half, the same shots we had in the second half, we just didn’t make them.”
Three Sycamores were in double-figures, led by Aaron Carter’s 19-point effort. Rashad Reed scored 17 and had seven assists. Josh Crawford scored 12.
In a bizarre game, there were some wild-and-crazy statistical swings. DePaul (4-0) had a 43-40 rebounding edge, but both teams hit double-digit offensive rebounding totals — the Blue Demons enjoyed a 20-13 edge there. ISU had 16 turnovers to DePaul’s 13, but the Blue Demons were able to make much more of ISU’s mistakes, scoring 27 points off turnovers.
So how did ISU make it a game? Confidence on the offensive end was a big key.
“We missed a lot of open shots we normally hit in the first half, I think we were nervous,” Reed said. “In the second half, we maintained our confidence. We made the shots we know we can make and that helped us. We learned, though, that we have to play that way for 40 minutes, not 20 minutes.”
ISU started the second half with an 18-4 run to gouge its 20-point halftime deficit to seven. Five different Sycamores had a hand in the run.
“We opened the game a bit in the second half and tried to make simple plays for each other. That was theme we had at halftime,” McKenna said. “We scrapped, clawed, and we made better hustle plays. That’s what I liked about our effort, we got after loose balls and didn’t get beat to them. We played hard.”
Though DePaul restored a 12-point lead, ISU didn’t go away. Carter and Cutter made five shots at the line to help make it a seven-point game. Then Isiah Martin tipped in his own miss to knock the lead down to 63-58 with 3:38 left. Later, Carl Richard’s turnaround hook and a Carter runner at 2:31 cut DePaul’s lead to 2.
ISU never whittled its deficit past two, however. At 66-64, DePaul’s Dar Tucker, who led all scorers with 26 points, made a pair of free throws to make it 68-64. Reed answered with a 14-footer with 1:03 left. Tucker missed a runner on the other end, but ripped the offensive board away, went to the line, and made one to make it 69-66.
ISU did not get a chance to respond. Defending Cutter one-on-one, DePaul’s Jeremiah Kelly stole the ball from Cutter at mid-court. ISU was called for goaltending on Kelly’s breakaway and DePaul had a 71-66 lead. ISU would not get another chance to tie or take the lead again.
“I made a stupid mistake on a turnover that really cost us,” Cutter said. “Hopefully, I’ll learn from this and it won’t happen again.”
ISU led for the first five minutes, doing a reasonable job defensively and on the boards, but once DePaul got a dose of confidence, it went downhill quick for the Sycamores. ISU was sunk by a 30-4 run that spanned the 16 minute-to-5 minute mark. Over that period, ISU made just one field goal and had 17 of 19 offensive possessions where it failed to score.
Meanwhile, the Blue Demons were riding high. DePaul scored on contested shots … and less than contested shots. DePaul also had 10 second-chance points in the first half alone, the fourth consecutive game ISU has given up a double-digit second-chance point total. DePaul ended 22 second-chance points overall.
Later, DePaul would get its transition game going off of ISU’s multitude of misses and turnovers, along with an effective press defense. On two occasions, the Blue Demons scored on scantly defended chippies near the bucket, including a dunk by Tucker. DePaul twice enjoyed a 23-point lead in the first half before it settled for a 39-19 halftime advantage.
“Our energy went down defensively [after the missed shots] and we had some careless turnovers in their press. It’s one thing if you turn it over and you can set your defense, we were turning it over and they were scoring right away,” McKenna said.
ISU has just two days until it plays host to Arkansas State. No one was satisfied with a defeat, but the manner in which ISU fought back was at least something to build on after the Sycamores faded in losses to North Texas and Murray State last week.
“One positive we can take from this is we know we can beat anyone if we play the right way. We shouldn’t have lost our last two games, but we lost because we didn’t show enough fight. Tonight, we fought better,” Carter said.
Indiana State 70
Player mi fg 3pt ft r a pf tp
Tunnell 25 4-13 0-2 1-1 7 3 5 9
Crawford 24 4-6 2-3 2-4 5 2 3 12
Reed 27 6-11 1-5 4-4 4 7 2 17
Carter 28 7-12 2-6 3-3 6 1 1 19
Richard 32 2-7 0-1 0-0 5 0 4 4
Leitnaker 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2
Barlow 9 0-3 0-3 0-0 0 0 1 0
Cutter 21 1-3 1-2 2-2 3 2 3 5
Martin 18 1-3 0-0 0-0 5 0 0 2
Printy 14 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 0
Totals 26-61 6-23 12-14 40* 15 20 70
DePaul 75
Player mi fg 3pt ft r a pf tp
Tucker 30 8-23 3-11 7-10 9 1 1 26
Poscic 22 1-4 0-0 3-3 5 0 3 5
Koshwal 35 4-8 0-0 1-5 15 2 3 9
Currie 20 4-6 2-2 0-0 0 1 1 10
Walker 31 3-9 0-1 1-1 0 1 3 7
Bizoukas 16 1-2 0-1 2-2 3 4 1 4
Hill 19 1-6 1-3 0-0 2 1 0 3
Kelly 22 4-8 1-3 2-4 1 1 0 11
Faber 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 2 0
Obi 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Totals 26-67 7-21 16-25 43* 11 14 75
Halftime score — DU 39, ISU 19. FG Pct. — ISU .426, DU .388; 3-pt. FG Pct. — ISU .261, DU .333; FT Pct. — ISU .857, DU .640. Steals — ISU 4 (Crawford 2), DU 9 (Walker 3); Blocks — ISU 2 (Crawford, Richard 1), DU 5 (Hill 3). Turnovers — ISU 16, DU 13. (*) Includes team rebounds — ISU 4, DU 6. Att. — 7,782.
Next — ISU (0-4) plays host to Arkansas State on Monday. DePaul (4-0) plays at California on Wednesday.
College
Inspiring ISU comeback falls short in loss to DePaul
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