IU Gets Inside, Gets By Saint Francis in NIT Opener

Tuesday, March 19

Bloomington, Ind.

7:00 PM

Indiana University

18-15

Saint Francis (PA)

18-15

Saint Francis (PA)

Indiana

IU Gets Inside, Gets By Saint Francis in NIT Opener

3/19/2019 8:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana started going inside.

Where the going was good.

The host Hoosiers, down 40-34 to St. Francis at halftime, consistently got points in the paint while pulling away for an 89-72 win in Tuesday night's National Invitational Tournament opener.

Juwan Morgan, asked post-game for a PC-language version of coach Archie Miller's halftime speech, replied:

"Uh … get the ball in the paint. I'll leave it at that."

The Hoosiers duly kept senior frontliner Morgan well fed and he chowed down for 21 of his game-high 28 points after intermission.

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Indiana, as a team, shot .636 from the field after halftime, getting 38 points in the paint (compared to 18 in the first half).

"We were better in the second half," IU coach Archie Miller said. "You could tell we much were much more aggressive getting the ball to the paint.

"We drove it more. We scored more around the basket. We were able to get a lot more two-point shots. First half, we're a team that shoots I think maybe in the 20s from 3, so when you watch us jack 3 up, the result usually is transition defense and having to get back and guard.

"When you work the ball into the paint, you can get fouled. If your guards can put it down and get to the paint, usually that's better. I thought the second half makeup of our team was much better."

Indiana also seemed to get an emotional lift from an otherwise negative sequence – what amounted to a six-point swing for St. Francis – in the final 10 seconds of the first half.

IU freshman Rob Phinisee was on a break trying to tie to the score but couldn't finish through contact and didn't get a whistle from official Kelly Pfeifer.

Asked afterward if he felt he was fouled, Phinisee said, "Little bit. It was a no call. That happens a lot."

St. Francis then got a break going in the opposite direction and fellow official John Floyd called a foul on De'Ron Davis at the 0:01.6 mark.

"I just thought Rob went down, and I thought he got fouled, and then I thought the play that came back (at the other end) was no different," Miller said. "I mean, I didn't see the difference on the call."

And in expressing that viewpoint with some vehemence to Pfeifer, Miller drew his first technical foul of the season. So SF senior Jamaal King – a catalyst the entire first half, hit a pair of technical free throws and junior teammate Keith Braxton hit two charities arising from the Davis foul and the Red Flash suddenly had a six-point halftime cushion.

But the Hoosiers had some fire in their bellies.

Phinisee personally appreciated Miller having his back, technical or not.

"That's what you want in a coach, somebody who will stand up for you," Phinisee said. "I feel like that actually helped us a little bit, going into halftime. (Then) that halftime speech … helped us pick up the intensity."

Several players noted senior co-captain Zach McRoberts got the halftime messaging started, then Miller got his say.

"He just sparked us," IU sophomore Al Durham said of Miller. "He told us we had another level to tap into and, once we did tap into it, I felt like we played a lot better in the second half."

By pounding the ball inside to the man they call 'J-Mo.'

"J-Mo is a great player," Durham said of Morgan. "I felt if we got the ball to him inside it was dang near an automatic 2."

Indeed, it took Morgan just 10 seconds to score with his left hand inside to start the second-half scoring. And Morgan would go on to hit all seven shots he took after halftime to finish 10 of 13 for the game on the way to a game-high 28 points.

A Morgan bucket inside gave IU the lead back – for good, it turned out – at 43-42 with 17:46 to play. The lead grew slowly but steadily from there.

By the time Morgan converted a follow with 11:13 left, the Hoosier edge reached double-digits at 59-49.

A determined Durham drive made it 15, at 73-58, with 5:50 left.

The lead peaked at 89-70 with 0:31 left on a pair of free throws by Bloomington native and graduating senior Johnny Jager – his first IU career points, officially, drawing loud cheers from the crowd of 5,431.

The Hoosiers, to a man, expressed appreciation for the crowd that came on short notice Tuesday.

"I'd say it was probably the most vocal crowd we've had all year," said Morgan, who passed Jordan Hulls and Ted Kitchel on IU's career scoring list Tuesday night, now at No. 27 all-time. "I honestly wasn't expecting that.

"But especially when we gave them something to cheer about, it was great to have those fans behind you. We have the best fans in the country and they really showed up tonight."

Al Durham put it this way: "We've got the greatest fans in the world. They're always behind us. Once we get it rockin' in there, it feels great."

Durham delivered his share of feel-good moments Tuesday. He hit a pretty floater at the 3:05 mark to set a new career-high for scoring, then added a 3 to finish with 22 points.

Joining Morgan and Durham in double-figures for IU were Devonte Green (12 points) and Justin Smith (10) with Phinisee just a point shy at nine. Northeastern Confernce co-champ St. Francis (18-15) got 21 points from Isaiah Blackmon and 19 from King.

Indiana (18-15) finished at .515 from the field, the third time in four games it has exceeded 50 percent, and had 18 assists against just seven turnovers.

"Al did a nice job," Miller said of Durham. "I thought all of our perimeter guys, from an offensive standpoint, did a pretty good job. Al in the second half, Rob and Devonte, I thought drove the ball much more than they did in the first half.

"Devonte pops in another six assists, Rob has four to one, so you get 10 to three (assists-to-turnovers) from those two guys. That's a good sign."

And it was a good sign to see the IU offense get going – admittedly against an opponent not known for its defense – despite the absence of Hoosier season scoring leader Romeo Langford, out with back issues that arose in the Big Ten Tournament loss to Ohio State.

"He tweaked his back early on in the Ohio State game," Miller said. "He dealt with it through the Ohio State game and, post-Ohio State, he's had multiple treatments a day and he's not feeling very good. So he's uncomfortable.

"If we played in the NCAA Tournament tonight, he wouldn't have played. Romeo would like to come back. There are short turnarounds right here with these games, so I don't necessarily know if one day is going to make a lot of difference for him. Maybe it takes us into that second week."

To get to that second week of NIT play, IU will have to beat an Arkansas team Saturday that handed the Hoosiers a 73-72 setback Nov. 18 in Fayetteville – and that won at Providence, 84-72, Tuesday night.

Indiana, if it keeps winning as the NIT's overall No. 1 seed, would play three games at home before heading to the tournaments semifinals and finals at Madison Square Garden in New York.

"I mean, be honest with you, we're taking it very, very serious right now," Miller said of the NIT. "Maybe the first half we didn't, but this is a tournament that has teams that could advance in the NCAA Tournament, I feel like.

"Once you start to get through a round and play that second one, you're going to see the intensity level go up, because you're a step closer to getting to Madison Square Garden. And if you get to that third one, obviously there's a lot of pressure in those games."

Morgan, who saw IU sidelined at Georgia Tech in the NIT first-round his sophomore season, didn't want to repeat that experience Tuesday night.

And now he wants more.

"We get one win, and it can be kind of a domino effect," Morgan said. "(Now) we just to protect homecourt."