Quick thoughts on a 68-60 victory over Butler:
How it happened: It was a two-part story defensively for Indiana on Saturday afternoon at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Huskies initially seemed content to trade in buckets and Butler gained confidence (s —- in the first half), opening a nine-point lead at the start of the Bulldogs 37 37-48. Indiana closed the gap with the final four points to create a five-point deficit at halftime, but the accounting class in defensive performance was not beautiful. Indiana allowed Butter to score 1.14 points per possession before the intervention, which is not sustainable for this group to win games. But the Hussars answered in the second part. 15-3 to start the half put the Huskies ahead 47-40. By the under-eight timeout, Indiana led 53-45. It was a strong defensive performance in the second half as Indiana held Butler to just 23 points on their way to a fifth non-conference victory. The Bulldogs shot only 26.7 percent after shooting .85..8 percent in the first half in the second half.
Standout performer: Softmore Armaan Franklin continued his hot shooting in Bakers Life as he scored 13 of his 20 points in the first half. Trace Jackson-Davis was equally impressive with 21 points and eight rebounds in 35 minutes.
The statistics that come out: Indiana Butler’s dominance in paint, especially in the second half. The Hoosiers outscored the Bulldogs 34-20 in the paint and 22-8 in the paint in the second half.
Final IU individual statistics:
Final tempo-free stats:
Filed: Butler Bulldogs
