Tamar Bates carries the load off the bench in lucky win vs. Kennesaw St.

Sophomore guard, Tamar Bates, carried the load for Indiana basketball off the bench, finishing 2022 with a lucky win against the Kennesaw State Owls on Friday.

Stat line vs. Kennesaw State: 31 MIN | 19 PTS | 2 REB | 2 AST | 7/12 FG | 3/7 3PT | 1 TOV | 3 PF

Where would the Hoosiers have been without Tamar Bates in this last game of 2022 against Kennesaw State?

Tied 27-27 at halftime and neck and neck most of the game, the Hoosiers needed someone other than Jalen Hood-Schifino to step up without Xavier Johnson and Trayce Jackson-Davis on Friday night.

And that happened to be the knock-down shooter, Bates, who has been on a shooting tear over his last couple of games. Over his last five games, “Scoop” has been shooting 55.6 percent from the field (25-for-45) and 48.0 percent from beyond the arc (12-for-25), adding in two 19-point performances all off of the bench for Coach Woodson.

While Jalen Hood-Schifino notched another career-high performance on Friday night (18 points), the shooting and second-half performance put on by Bates really led Indiana basketball to a much-needed victory against a streaky shooting Owls team.

Now Bates hopes to carry this shooting momentum into the beginning of Big Ten play that starts on January 5 against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Check out Bates’ postgame press conference after leading the Hoosiers, where he needed one extra question to get in his media word of the night (Media word: “wetbandits”):