Very much a bubble team entering Tuesday night’s game against Northwestern, Darian DeVries could not afford to lose one of the easier of his remaining three home games. Indiana lost the game anyway.
In the first half, it looked like the Hoosiers were set to coast to the easy win it was projected to get against the 3-13 Northwestern Wildcats, who had just one road win on the season entering Tuesday. Lamar Wilkerson made his first four 3-pointers, and he got help from Nick Dorn, who also made a pair from deep.
Given how hot and cold Indiana has been from deep, especially outside of Wilkerson, this was the best start DeVries could have asked for on offense. Dorn had eight first half points, after being held scoreless against Purdue and to just one point at Illinois.
There were signs even in that half though that Indiana was not playing as well as it needed to. Northwestern, a shorter team that also struggles on the glass, out-rebounded Indiana 12-10 in the first half, giving them six second-chance points to Indiana’s zero.
Things only got worse for Indiana on the glass in the second half, when the Wildcats grabbed 22 rebounds to the Hoosiers’ 13. 16 of those Northwestern rebounds were on the defensive end, holding Indiana to just one second-chance point in the second half.
Uncharacteristic turnovers and overall sloppy play allowed Northwestern to erase the nine point lead Indiana had at the half. The Hoosiers also went cold from deep, going just 2-12 from 3-point range in the second half. Wilkerson struggled, and Dorn failed to score at all in the final 20.
Defensively, Indiana had no answer for Nick Martinelli, who had 21 of his 28 points in the final 20 minutes. DeVries tried a few different defenders on him, but the result was the same. He was scoring in and around the paint, even stepping out for an open three that gave Northwestern a 63-61 lead.
Indiana trailed the rest of the way from there, failing to close out a winnable game that DeVries desperately needed to make an NCAA Tournament in year one.