Second-Half Surge Leads Hoosiers Past Merrimack

Sunday, December 12

Bloomington, Ind.

Noon

Indiana University

8-2,1-1Big Ten

Merrimack

4-8,0-0NEC

Team	1	2	F
Merrimack	30	19	49
Indiana	36	45	81

Second-Half Surge Leads Hoosiers Past Merrimack

12/12/2021 1:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Forget individual.

For Jordan Geronimo, it was time to acknowledge teammate accomplishment.

Yes, Indiana's sophomore forward was wrapping up a career performance -- his first college double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds (five more points and five more rebounds than he'd ever had before) -- but in the final moments of Sunday's 81-49 victory over Merrimack, Geronimo made sure to congratulate Logan Dumbcomb for his first career point, rebound and block.

It was a highlight in a game full of them for the 6-6, 220-pound Geronimo, who was an off-the-bench, 20-minute monster with a consistency he hasn't shown all season. He was 5-for-8 from the field, and grabbed every rebound within reach, and a few that weren't.

"Rebounding is important to me," he said. "Rebounding is one of the things necessary to a game. You get extra possessions.

"The ball is up, I'm going to try to get it regardless of the situation.

"All these little things matter. I was given this body to get rebounds. I'm going to use it."

Geronimo did that, and more.

"It's keeping the right mindset," he said. "My teammates keep telling me to play strong and with a lot of energy. That's my game. I just kept going. I didn't stop."

That's exactly what coach Mike Woodson pushes Geronimo to do.

"He has improved. If he continues to work, he will continue to improve. My job is to push him and steer him in the right direction."

Geronimo came in averaging 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds.

"He's very athletic," Woodson said. "He's a decent defender. He can rebound in traffic and block shots.

"We're trying to get him to do other things. We want him to be patient on offense. Shoot when it's time to shoot it. He took a shot that wasn't Jordan. I let him know it."

IU (8-2) also got dominant inside play from Race Thompson (14 points, seven rebounds) and Trayce Jackson-Davis (16, 9), who exploited Merrimack's 2-3 zone and lack of Big Ten-caliber size.

"With (Merrimack's zone)," Woodson said, "the holes were there. If we got the ball in to them, they basically were one on one with their defenders. I told them -- why kick it out? Try to score."

And if they missed, someone was there to rebound. IU finished with a 54-16 rebound edge.

"When you play a 2-3 zone, it's hard to rebound out of it," Thompson said. "We know we can get offensive rebounds out of the 2-3. We also had them in size a little bit."

The rebound dominance was exactly what Woodson expected.

"We were a bigger team," he said. "We should out-rebound this team. We played all of our bigs and were pounding it inside. I expected it."

It was a dominant performance to follow last Wednesday's loss at Wisconsin, when the Hoosiers blew a 22-point lead.

Add the road loss to Syracuse and its 2-3 zone, and Indiana showed growth in attacking that kind of defense.

"We've seen a lot of zones," Thompson said. "We're getting better. We work on it every day. The more we work on it, the better we get."

Merrimack (4-8) hit three early three-pointers for a quick 9-6 lead. The Hoosiers pushed their way to a 10-point lead. The Warriors closed within two points behind their three-point shooting (they hit six of them) before IU ended the half with a 36-30 lead.

Jackson-Davis led with 12 points and five rebounds.

IU's strong second-half start restored the double-digit lead, and then doubled it behind a heavy dose of Thompson and Jackson-Davis that included a 13-0 run.

Merrimack was finished.

We're learning how to win," Woodson said. "We're trying to build a team and put different pieces in place. I don't know how long it will take.

"We lost two games, winnable. We're still a work in progress. We're still learning each other. We have to continue to work.

"I've seen some good play, some bad play. We have to keep improving."

IU won't play again until Saturday, when it faces Notre Dame in the Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis. The Irish (4-4) are coming off an upset win over No. 10 Kentucky.

"Wisconsin was a tough loss," Thompson said. "We found ways to get better. It's a confidence boost before playing Notre Dame."