Myles Rice Miami Ohio

Indiana guard Myles Rice shoots 3-pointer against Miami (Ohio) on Friday at Assembly Hall.

 Courtesy | Indiana Athletics

Dominant performances from Oumar Ballo and Myles Rice helped Indiana overcome a sloppy night against a pesky Miami (Ohio) team at Assembly Hall on Friday.

Ballo had his best game to date as a Hoosier, scoring 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, grabbing 18 rebounds, equaling a career-high with six assists and blocking two shots while Rice poured in 17 points on 6-for-7 shooting to lead IU to a 76-57 victory that was far from sure for most of the night.

The Hoosiers (7-2), who have won three in a row, were able to pull away late despite turning the ball over 16 times, leading to 20 RedHawks points. Three players app Rice, Malik Reneau and Bryson Tucker app had three giveaways apiece.

"We were just taking chances on passes that just weren't there and doing things with the ball off the dribble that just wasn't there," Hoosiers coach Mike Woodson said. "These are things that, man, you just got to fix. Moving forward, once we start playing Big Ten basketball, plays like that can really put you in the hole with these good teams."

IU begins conference play against Minnesota (6-4, 0-1 Big Ten) on Monday in Bloomington.

"It's here now," Hoosiers guard Trey Galloway said of opening the league schedule. "The Big Ten is real. Anybody can win on any given night. You gotta be prepared and practice with urgency and with a purpose."

Indiana led just 39-36 at halftime and the teams traded baskets for the first 10 minutes of the second period. From there, however, the Hoosiers turned up their intensity on the defensive end and created a string of 11 consecutive misses from the field for the RedHawks. The visitors did not score for 6:19.

Woodson was not particularly pleased with his team's defense despite the lengthy RedHawks drought.

"We've still got work to do, man," the fourth-year IU coach said. "Even though they went six minutes without scoring the ball, they still had good looks. The looks came on our inability to switch correctly. We screwed up so many switches tonight I thought.

"Those are things that I just got to get us right. When you switch, that means you got a body on a body. Nobody's breaking free for easy shots. We;ve got to clean that up."

Indiana heard Woodson's message.

"It is early, but we gotta learn quick," Galloway said. "We can't have those breakdowns. There was a lot tonight. I think it's just our attention to detail and really focusing and sticking to the game plan. There's a lot of miscues that we had that we shouldn't have. If we clean those up, it takes away a lot of those buckets that they got."

While Miami was struggling to find the range in the second half, Indiana ripped off a 12-0 run that turned a 5-point lead into a 67-50 margin. Ballo got the run started with a nifty high-low pass to Reneau for a dunk and Rice followed by driving and kicking across the court to Galloway for a corner 3 that swished through.

Rice drew a charge on the defensive end and then Ballo grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a free throw. Reneau followed with some fancy footwork around two Miami defenders at the rim for a layup and Fort Wayne native Luke Goode completed the spurt with a flying offensive rebound and a putback layup, plus a foul. The play had Goode on the baseline pumping his fist after converting.

Reneau scored a game-high 19 points on 8-for-15 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. 

Ballo had his first double-double with the Hoosiers.

"Oh yeah, a little bit for sure," the 7-foot, 265-pound Ballo said, smiling, when asked whether he enjoyed playing against a smaller team like Miami. "Whenever you play against guys you got a couple of pounds on, you have to take advantage of that."

Galloway collected 13 points and went 3 for 4 from 3-point range. The fifth-year senior shot just 26% from beyond the arc last season and Miami said during the pregame it planned to sag off of him and dare him to shoot.

RedHawks leading scorer Peter Suder, a former Carmel star, had nine points, but shot just 2 for 10 from the field.

Goode, a former Homestead standout, chipped in nine points and three rebounds. He's averaging 12 points over his last three games.

The Hoosiers shot 54%, while Miami managed just 31%. The RedHawks hit only 23% in the second half, including 4 for 16 from 3-point distance.

The Hoosiers took a double-digit lead three times in the first half, including a 13-3 margin at the outset, and let the RedHawks answer with a run on all three occasions.

"We controlled it early, but we let it slip away," Woodson said. "These are growing pains, man. When you get a team down, you just got to keep stepping and building. We just didn't do that early on."

IU has won by an average margin of 20.3 points during its three-game win streak after dropping back-to-back contests against Louisville and Gonzaga by a combined 44 points.

The Hoosiers have won seven in a row against Miami. IU's last loss in the series came in November 1983, in Steve Alford's first game with the Hoosiers.

dsinn@jg.net