Hoosiers Use Second Half Surge To Defeat UC Davis

Friday, November 23

Bloomington, Ind.

7:00 PM

Indiana University

UC Davis

Indiana

Hoosiers Use Second Half Surge To Defeat UC Davis

11/23/2018 9:11:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - A game that for so long was akin to pulling teeth at last gave the home folks reason to smile.

And if Cal-Davis had Les, it also had more much of Friday night. More points. More movement offensively. More defensive stops. More momentum.

But coach Jim Les' Aggies didn't have Juwan Morgan. And didn't have Romeo Langford. And didn't have an answer down the stretch as Indiana's host Hoosiers rode a rousing 28-3 run to a 76-62 victory.

IU senior forward Morgan was mostly magnificent, posting a season-high 31 points (just three shy of his career last season against Notre Dame in overtime) and adding 10 rebounds.

Langford augmented that with 20 points and five boards while showing that freshmen can also arise at crunch time.

"We found a way, right about the eight-minute mark, to dig in, get a little more solid defensively," IU coach Archie Miller said. "Thought Juwan and Romeo -- those 3s those guys made really give us the confidence to finish it off.

"Really hard-fought game. Credit our guys for hanging in there. Sometimes it's not easy and it's not always going to be your night. But (we) found a way."

The final score was almost entirely misleading.

Cal-Davis led the entire way till Langford forged a 54-54 tie via a superb baseline drive with 7:20 left, and Morgan followed by tipping in his own miss for Indiana's initial lead at the 5:50 mark.

Then a Langford 3 ripped cord from the right wing. Then Morgan rolled in a 3 from almost the same spot. And after Cal-Davis' AJ John hit a 3, IU's Justin Smith responded with yet another 3, this one from the top of the key.

That made it 65-57, Hoosiers, with 3:48 left. Momentum had swung late, but permanently.

And Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall was rockin'.

"They definitely helped us," Morgan said of the holiday-weekend crowd of 13,562. "I think as we started playing harder on defense … we gave them something to cheer about, and in return they gave us energy on the offensive end.

"As we started to build a little lead, I think we just kept our foot on the gas and we never looked back."

The game actually required the Hoosiers to rally twice, in each half.

Indiana had trouble finding any sorts of shots early. Its first three attempts were missed 3s.

Cal-Davis scored the first seven points and looked like it was perhaps on the way to a magic night. Siler Schneider hoisted an 18 footer at the shot-clock buzzer that banked in, T.J. Shorts somehow heaved a ball up and in while sprawling over the end line.

By the time John swished his first 3 of the game, it was 24-10 Aggies with 7:38 left before halftime.

But as was the case in Tuesday's 78-64 homecourt win over Texas-Arlington, Morgan constituted an almost one-man cavalry ride to the rescue.

Morgan scored 15 straight IU points before Langford pulled the Hoosiers within 29-28 on a 3 from the left baseline at the 3:30 mark of the first half.

"We needed everything he had," Miller said of Morgan. "First half he got us going with his energy level. Offensively, he got going."

But the Aggies answered with consecutive 3s from Stefan Gonzales and John to go back up 35-29, but Indiana closed to within 38-36 at halftime with Rob Phinisee finding Morgan inside for a two-hand dunk to beat the buzzer.

IU shot .609 from the field (and hit 5 of 7 from 3) for the first half but still trailed because UC-Davis was almost as hot (.556, including 6 of 11 from 3), won the rebounding (13-10) and had one less turnover (7-8). Morgan already had 19 points, but slick and quick point guard Shorts had 12 and John 11 for the Aggies.

UC-Davis started the second half as it had the first, in control. The Aggies methodically built their lead to 48-40 when Joe Mooney hit a 3, and the lead was still six at 54-48 as the game went under the 9:00 mark.

"They are very organized, offensively, in terms of their ball-screen motion and how they do things," Miller said of the Aggies. "They lift you, their front court guys do an amazing job of sprinting and changing angles at the last minute.

"They had our guards really confused at times in terrible of being able to get over a screen, or being able to contain the dribble, so to speak. And for the first time all season A.J. John played like A.J. John played a year ago. He came in shooting 15 percent from the floor. We knew eventually the guy was going to break through. He's a 40 percent three-point shooter. (And) they have a great point guard (in Shorts)."

The Hoosiers sure looked in trouble. Turned out the Aggies were.

"You have to give credit to them," Morgan said of the Aggies. "They are a great team. They were hitting all the shots I'm pretty sure they hit in practice. But I think, just defensively, we started to just have more pride in ourselves, just playing harder on that side of the ball. And I think that turned into good things on the offensive end."

UC-Davis (1-6) would score just three points in six decisive minutes. Meantime, the Hoosiers dealt death.

Morgan scored inside and Langford hit a pair of free throws to get IU within 54-52. And then Langford saw room on the baseline that few others could see.

"Yeah, we were making a run," Langford recalled. "Coach called a play for us (to) run and I just saw the (baseline), to go in there and attack it, attack it hard."

Langford did his patented Mike Woodson impression, getting skinny on the baseline, to tie the game for the first time all night, and the crowd erupted.

"Yeah, he went baseline on the guy and was able to get there," Miller said. "I thought once he tied the ballgame, the energy level went up and the crowd obviously played a big role again in the last eight minutes helping us pull it out."

After Morgan's follow gave IU the lead, the Hoosiers would keep it, padding the margin by raining down 3s -- the first from Langford, which just rocketed through the net.

"The 3 that I hit to give us a better cushion, me and Juwan, we ran a two-man game," Langford said. "I just saw them backing off on me and I couldn't pass up that shot. (Juwan) knew it was good when it left my hand.

"Everyone and on the team, they always give me confidence and give me the green light to shoot."

And it was green as in go the rest of the way for IU (5-1).

"These two guys over here they are very reliable," Smith said of Langford and Morgan, who joined him at the dais to meet the media post-game. "Having them on our side is very beneficial to us, especially when we do go through offensive lulls.

"They can really create their own shot and score the ball really well. Juwan really stepped up … really kept us a part of the game because they were trying to take it and run away with it."
Instead, the Hoosiers did that.

And it was the second time this week Morgan made sure they did.

"The second half, he just is a man in there," Miller said of Morgan. "Without him, you know, without him playing all 40 minutes, I didn't feel we would be able to win the game.

"Kept asking him if he was all right, all right, and he never really flinched, so to speak, in terms of his conditioning or whatnot. But it was a great performance by him and he's had two this week, two 'senior' performances, I thought."

Miller hopes Morgan, Langford and the others playing major minutes lately will get more help soon. Two players projected by man as starters in the preseason, Zach McRoberts and Devonte Green, dressed Friday night but didn't play.

"I think this will be a good weekend, obviously, if we can get a couple guys back, even if it's just for non-contact, just more bodies in practice," Miller said. "Credit UC Davis tonight.

"We knew coming in the game how well coached they are. That's a team that won 22 games last year with a lot of guys back from a conference championship … but we found a way and you know hopefully we can get a little bit better here leading into Tuesday. We have some time hopefully to recover and get a guy or two back maybe which would really help us."

Because Tuesday is all hands on deck.

The Hoosiers have a date at Duke.