Indiana Basketball: Hoosiers go cold late in loss to Razorbacks

The Indiana basketball team looked like they were in control and on their way to a big non-conference win on Sunday. But a late scoring slump doomed the Hoosiers in their loss.

The Hoosiers came into their game against Arkansas Sunday looking to get one last non-conference win and hopefully give another reason why they should be in AP top 25. Through 32 minutes of the game, it looked like they were going to do just that.

Joey Brunk hit a layup with 8:08 left in the game to put the Hoosiers up 61-52 and it looked like they were well on their way to picking up their 12th win of the year and a perfect non-conference record.

Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the Hoosiers they needed to score again in order to win the game. Indiana would score only three more points the rest of the game and two of them were on a layup by Armaan Franklin with 21 seconds left. The Hoosiers scored one point over a seven and a half minute stretch as the Razorbacks outscored them by 16.

The loss spoiled another great night by Trayce Jackson-Davis, as he scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds. Jackson-Davis was again very efficient as he went 8-11 from the field and again the question can be asked why he isn’t getting more shots.

The Razorbacks were led by Isaiah Joe, 24 points, and Mason Jones, 21 points. It was no surprise that they were the two leading scorers for Arkansas as they have been their go-to guys all year long. Arkansas only went seven deep, but the Hoosiers couldn’t take advantage.

The first half was tight until the end when the Hoosiers were able to take a five-point lead into the break. Indiana dominated the first 12 minutes of the second half as they built a ten-point lead.

All signs pointed to the Hoosiers pulling away and getting a win against the Razorbacks in a battle of two teams just on the outside of the top 25. With the comeback win, Arkansas might find themselves ranked on Monday, while the Hoosiers are left scratching their heads on what went wrong.

Indiana has proved they can win tight games, but in the last two games they have given up big leads in the second half. They were able to fight off Notre Dame their last time out, but couldn’t get out of their own way this time.

Jackson-Davis continues to be a bright spot for the Hoosiers, but if they can’t fix their second-half troubles, it could be a long year in the Big Ten.

The Hoosiers travel to Maryland next Saturday to start back up their Big Ten schedule. If they can come back and get a big road win, this game will just become a distant memory.