IU basketball won a pivotal game on Saturday afternoon, beating Wisconsin 78-77 in overtime at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Here are five takeaways from the win against the Badgers:
Sam Alexis played his best game yet in an IU uniform
IU basketball has been using a platoon system at the five, with seniors Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey rotating in and out based on matchups and performance.
Alexis, a starter since the Penn State game on Dec. 9, played his best game of the season on Saturday afternoon.
The 6-foot-9 senior scored a season-high 19 points, his eighth double-figure scoring output and first since the Michigan game on January 20.
Wisconsin didn’t have an answer for Alexis in the paint, particularly in the second half when he scored 13 points on 6-for-6 shooting from the field.
Alexis was 9-for-10 from the field, made his only free throw attempt and pulled down seven rebounds in 34 minutes.
“I thought Sam was tremendous in that second half,” Darian DeVries said. “We were able to take advantage of a few switches. That’s why they were able to stay in front of us a little better. They were switching a little more. We were able to throw it inside.”
More importantly, Alexis provided rim protection for the Hoosiers by blocking five shots. Wisconsin shot only 42.9 percent on 2s, its second-lowest mark inside the arc in a game this season.
Conor Enright draws a late-game charge that led to IU’s win
Senior point guard Conor Enright, a fan favorite among the Assembly Hall faithful, added to his lore on Saturday afternoon.
With Indiana trailing by two points in overtime and Wisconsin with possession, Enright drew a charge on Wisconsin point guard Nick Boyd, who was dribbling away from the basket beyond the 3-point line.
It was a controversial call that’s still being debated on social media, but Enright was in the right place at the right time and official Larry Scirotto blew his whistle, giving the Hoosiers possession at a critical time.
“We were trying to get a turnover first, trying to see if they’d cough it up,” Enright explained postgame. “Honestly, I was kind of panicking, trying to get a hold of him because he was wasting time, 15 seconds, something like that. Then I just saw his shoulder go into me and figured from a foul I might as well try and get a charge. It worked out.”
The heads-up play by Enright led to IU’s final possession. On that final trip down the floor for IU, Lamar Wilkerson drew a foul on John Blackwell with under three seconds remaining. Wilkerson calmly stepped to the line and sank a pair of free throws, leading to a seventh Big Ten win for the Hoosiers.
Tucker DeVries knocks in a trio of 3-pointers and goes the distance
Offense has been hard to come by in recent months for senior forward Tucker DeVries, who was expected to be one of the top scorers in the Big Ten entering the season.
Saturday brought a bit of a reprieve for the shooting woes for DeVries, who knocked in a team-high three 3-pointers on seven attempts.
He finished with 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the field and a 3-for-4 mark from the free-throw line.
Even more impressive, however, was the fact that DeVries played all 45 minutes in the game and grabbed eight rebounds to go along with two blocked shots.
The uptick on the glass recently has been noticeable for DeVries, who has 44 rebounds over IU’s last five games.
“I thought Tucker just, again, he’s our connector out there,” Darian DeVries said. “45 minutes and eight rebounds and knocked some shots down tonight.”
Lamar Wilkerson overcomes a tough shooting night and knocks down key free throws
It was a night to forget shooting-wise for Lamar Wilkerson, who shot only 40 percent from the field and 1-for-8 on 3-pointers.
But it was the latest example of just how polished Wilkerson is as a scorer that he can still manage 25 points on an off shooting night.
Through 13 league games, the senior guard is averaging 23.2 points per game.
Despite the perimeter shooting struggles on Saturday, Wilkerson made the two most important shots of the game. After he was fouled by John Blackwell late in overtime, his free throws turned a one-point deficit into a one-point lead.
It came as no surprise to Alexis or Enright.
“He don’t really miss in practice or like ever,” Alexis explained. “So I don’t really think he feels any pressure, to be honest, when he’s shooting them.”
“If I had to pick a guy,” Enright added. “I would put Lamar out there every single time to shoot every free throw in the game.”
Indiana deserves credit for slowing down a potent Wisconsin offense
The shooting numbers for Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon weren’t pretty.
The Badgers shot only 38 percent from the field and, as mentioned earlier, were a dreadful 42.9 percent on 2s.
Wisconsin scored 1.126 points per possession, its sixth-lowest efficiency output through 12 league games.
For an Indiana defense that gave up 1.227 points per possession or more in four straight losses to Nebraska, Michigan State, Iowa and Michigan, the Hoosiers have been better defensively over the last five games.
“A night like tonight, where you’re 5-for-22 from 3, typically the way our roster is built and how we’re playing, that’s a hard night for us,” Darian DeVries said. “We were able to win that game because we held them to 38 percent from the field. So our defense did just enough.
“There were times in there where it wasn’t great, but again, the defense did just enough to get the stops we needed when we needed them to allow us to win that game.”
See More: Five Takeaways, Conor Enright, Lamar Wilkerson, Sam Alexis, Tucker DeVries, Wisconsin Badgers