Kel’el Ware led a dominant effort by the Indiana frontcourt, producing 18 points and 14 rebounds as the Hoosiers rolled to a wire-to-wire 65-53 victory over Maryland in the Big Ten opener for both teams on Friday in Bloomington, Ind.
Mackenzie Mgbako delivered 13 points and seven rebounds and Malik Reneau added 11 points and five rebounds as the frontcourt starters for Indiana (6-1, 1-0) combined for 42 points and led the Hoosiers to a 46-30 edge on the boards.
On their way to their third straight win, the Hoosiers built a double-digit lead just 6:09 into the game and Maryland (4-4, 0-1) never made a serious run at the lead.
Indiana was without injured sixth-year guard Xavier Johnson, but the Hoosiers had no ball-handling issues as they played the first 13 minutes without a turnover.
Trey Galloway provided 12 points, six assists and six rebounds as Indiana’s floor general.
Jahmir Young led the Terrapins with 20 points. Julian Reese added 14 points and eight boards.
Maryland’s comeback efforts were derailed by another woeful shooting performance from long distance, as they hit 2 of 16 3-point attempts (12.5 percent) and shot 35.7 percent overall. The Terrapins entered the game with 23.8 percent marksmanship from deep.
Meanwhile, Indiana made 45.6 percent of its shots from the floor and 3 of 9 (33.3 percent) on its 3-point tries. The Hoosiers finished with 40 points in the paint, compared to 26 for the Terrapins.
With crisp interior passing, Indiana bolted to a 10-4 lead, with all of the buckets coming on layups.
Then Ware and Reneau stepped outside the arc and knocked down 3-pointers to finish an eight-point run that put the Hoosiers up 16-4.
Late in the half, Mgbako made back-to-back baskets, including a corner 3, as the Hoosiers grabbed their biggest lead of the period at 39-24 before the Terrapins closed it to 40-28 at the break.
Early in the second half, Indiana pushed its lead to 21 points as Galloway fueled a 10-point run with three straight layups — one driving, one on a fastbreak and one with a backdoor cut as the Hoosiers took a 52-31 advantage.
Another fastbreak layup by Galloway gave the Hoosiers their biggest lead of the night at 58-35 with 11:24 left.
–Field Level Media
