Indiana basketball: What we learned from Hoosiers’ season-opening win over SIUE

BLOOMINGTON — It wasn’t always pretty, but Indiana basketball closed out an 80-61 win over SIU-Edwardsville to open the season at Assembly Hall on Wednesday night.

Sophomore forward MacKenzie Mgbako hit his fourth 3-pointer with 5:44 left to give IU a 20-point lead for the first time. Mgbako, who had a career-high 31 points, was one of four Hoosiers in double-digits alongside Malik Reneau (15), Oumar Ballo (15) and Myles Rice (11).

While the No. 18 Hoosiers (1-0) never trailed, they had to keep their starters on the floor through the end of the game with SIUE doing just enough to hang around.

Here’s what stood out in the win:

Indiana’s Mackenzie Mgbako (21) scores during the Indiana versus Southern Illinois University Edwardsville men’s basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024.

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Indiana basketball forward Mackenzie Mgbako cooks the Cougars

Mgabko played with a confidence in Wednesday night’s season-opener that fans didn’t get to see until midway through last season.

As a true freshman, he struggled through the month of November averaging just 7.2 points per game on 39.5% shooting and 11.1% from 3-point range, but he turned the page on the slow start and won co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

Mgbako was IU’s best player by a wide margin to start out his sophomore campaign with his first 30-point game on 13-of-17 shooting and eight rebounds. He got going early with 13 straight points over a four-minute span that gave IU a 19-9 lead with 13:04 to go in the first half.

He flexed his versatility by knocking down a 3-pointer, throwing down a two-handed slam on a fast break and dropping in a little fadeaway from the corner after grabbing an offensive rebound.

After SIUE tied it at 27 with 4:48 to go in the half, Mgbako got the team back on track with another flurry coming out of a timeout.

He drained a 3-pointer with a defender in his face and had 3-point play…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/indiana-basketball-learned-hoosiers-season-030017562.html

Author : The Herald-Times

Publish date : 2024-11-07 03:00:00

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