Indiana regained momentum with its first win of the season against a ranked team Thursday night at home against No. 13 Ohio State.
The Hoosiers (11-3, 2-2 Big Ten) will look to stay unbeaten in Bloomington when they host Minnesota (10-2, 1-2) on Sunday. Indiana is 10-0 at home this season.
Trayce Jackson-Davis turned in another big performance in the Ohio State win, finishing with 27 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks for his fifth double-double of the season.
“I expect him to play like that,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said. “I mean, he’s shown that this season that he can produce numbers like that.”
Jackson-Davis leads Indiana in scoring (19.9), rebounding (8.5) and blocked shots (3.2) this season. He leads the Big Ten in blocks.
To complement Jackson-Davis, the Hoosiers are looking to break out of a recent shooting slump. Indiana shot just 18.8 percent (6 for 32) from 3-point range against Penn State and Ohio State. Parker Stewart and Miller Kopp, two players Indiana is counting on to knock down treys, went a combined 1 of 8 on Thursday against the Buckeyes.
“I ran some plays for them tonight just to see if they could respond, and they just missed some shots,” Woodson said. “I’m going to keep pushing them and I’m going to keep going at them and going to them, and they’ll eventually make them.”
Minnesota, under first-year coach Ben Johnson, is coming off a 76-53 loss to Illinois on Tuesday.
“For whatever reason, offensively, we weren’t ourselves,” Johnson said on his coach’s show on Thursday. “We weren’t clicking.”
The Gophers have been led by Jamison Battle, a George Washington transfer who leads Minnesota in scoring (18.2) and is second in rebounding (6.2).
“Knowing Jamo, I knew I was going to get a winner,” Johnson said. “I knew I was going to get a guy that puts unbelievable time into basketball, into his craft that competes, that wants to be good.”
Both teams place a high priority on defense. Minnesota ranks third in the Big Ten in scoring defense, allowing just 64.2 points per game, while Indiana leads the league in that category, giving up only 60.2 per game.
–Field Level Media
