Indiana Basketball: Hoosiers roll in season opener behind Durham, Smith

The Indiana basketball program was back in Assembly Hall on Tuesday for its season opener and rolled past Western Illinois.

College Basketball is back! It was a long seven months but the Indiana basketball program was finally back in business and rolled in the season opener against Western Illinois, winning 98-65.

Despite not having senior guard and returning leading scorer Devonte Green, the Hoosiers didn’t struggle to find the bottom of the bucket as they averaged 1.438 points per possession in the first half on 64.5 percent shooting from the field, finishing at 61 percent for the night.

After a three-minute segment around the under-12 media timeout in which the Hoosiers failed to score, they went on a huge run, outscoring the Leathernecks 35-13 in the final eight minutes of the half to stretch the lead to 21.

Al Durham paced Indiana all night long, both as a ball handler and a scorer, taking over some of the responsibility left by Green’s absence. Scoring 15 of his 21 points in the first half, he finished the night 7-for-7 from the field. He also added four rebounds and three assists.

An added dimension to the Indiana offense, that was visible with Durham at the point, was the pace the Hoosiers played with. Off of make or miss, Durham was pushing the ball with great pace up the floor for easy buckets on numerous occasions.

One of the biggest improvements made this offseason had to be the play of Justin Smith. With the multiple big men at Archie Miller’s disposal, it was going to be interesting how Smith was used, and right away we got a look at his potential out on the wing.

Playing the ‘three’, Smith flourished and looked like the most dominant player on the floor. With his athleticism, he overpowered smaller opponents but was able to use his quickness against bigger players. Overall, he finished tying his career-high of 24 points on 11-for-17 shooting, adding seven rebounds.

Missing a lot of the preseason, Rob Phinisee didn’t start, but added 14 points in 18 minutes off of the bench. With Armaan Franklin and Al Durham handling the ball more, as stressed by Archie Miller in the offseason, Phinisee was a lot more aggressive in looking for his shot.

For the freshmen, it was a terrific start to their career’s as both Armaan Franklin and Trayce Jackson-Davis received the start. Franklin finished with five points, five rebounds, and a team-high eight assists and no turnovers. Jackson-Davis added eight points, five rebounds, and four blocks for the Hoosiers.

Kobe Webster led the Leathernecks with 18 points, on just 6-for-13 from the field, as it was a difficult night for Western Illinois all night long, being held to just 34.4 percent from the field.

Indiana will be back in action on Saturday against Portland State at 2:00 pm.