Indiana vs. Duke: Score and Reaction from Big Ten/ACC Challenge

Many saw the Indiana Hoosiers as a dark-horse Final Four contender before the season started. There was only one Final Four contender on the floor in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday, and it wasn't head coach Tom Crean's squad.

The Duke Blue Devils ran the Hoosiers out of the building during the Big Ten/ACC Challenge with a 94-74 statement victory. It was actually close in the first half, but coach Mike Krzyzewski's team overwhelmed Indiana and its atrocious defense in the final 20 minutes to the tune of 43-32.

The Blue Devils shot 52.9 percent from the field and got impressive efforts from Brandon Ingram, Matt Jones and Grayson Allen throughout the win. Ingram paced the offense with 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting. Meanwhile, Jones chipped in 23, and Allen added 16. Duke also drilled 11 three-pointers as a team and simply had too much talent across the court for an Indiana defense that struggled all game. 

ESPN's Jeff Goodman summarized the proceedings:

At least the Hoosiers had those first few minutes. Indiana caught fire in the early stages of the first half and built a 23-18 lead behind some impressive three-point shooting of its own. Indiana Basketball summarized the initial run:

However, Ingram carried the Duke offense in the first half (18 points at the break) and gave the home team the 28-26 lead with two consecutive baskets. Laura Keeley of the Raleigh News & Observer praised the freshman's development:

Ingram's mini-spurt started the Blue Devils on a shooting tear to end the first half. Duke extended its lead to 51-42 by intermission after Allen's prayer of a floater went in during the final seconds, and as Dana O'Neil of ESPN pointed out, the back-and-forth nature of the game had Krzyzewski engaged:

Alex Bozich of Inside the Hall described one problem from Indiana's perspective:

Duke wasted little time in the second half establishing itself as the better team. The Blue Devils scored the first nine points after intermission to build a 60-42 lead, and Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star recognized a serious issue for the Hoosiers on the defensive end:

Terry Hutchens of BtownBanners.com was not impressed with Indiana's display: 

Things continued to worsen for the Hoosiers as the Cameron Crazies got more into the game with every Duke basket. The lead ballooned to 20, and Doyel implied Indiana was ready to throw in the towel only a few minutes into the second half:

The nightmare dragged on for the Hoosiers as they succumbed to an offensive slump and fell behind, 69-48, at the under-12-minute timeout. O'Neil described the offensive inefficiency as Duke controlled the momentum and scoreboard during the second half:

It wasn't just the Hoosiers offense that struggled, as Rob Dauster of NBC Sports realized:

The Blue Devils kept pouring it on during the middle of the second half and extended their advantage to 25 points, 78-53. Zach Osterman of the Indianapolis Star described a particularly poignant sequence:

As the game trudged to its inevitable conclusion, even the commentators were disappointed with what they saw from Indiana's defense, as Justin Albers of AllHoosiers.com noted:

Jeff Rabjohns of Peegs.com piled on:

Indiana never cut into the Duke lead in a meaningful way throughout the second half, practically handing the Blue Devils the victory.

What's Next?

Duke does not shy away from difficult nonconference games, and it still has a showdown with Utah after already facing Kentucky, VCU, Georgetown and Indiana this season. The Blue Devils do have something of a breather against Buffalo and Georgia Southern before that Utah contest and should have some momentum before ACC play begins.

As for Indiana, it is still trying to overcome early losses to Wake Forest and UNLV. Wednesday's effort certainly didn't help, although the Hoosiers have a stretch of winnable contests against Morehead State, IPFW and McNeese State before an in-state showdown with Notre Dame. 

The Big Ten was impressive during this year's Big Ten/ACC Challenge, so Indiana will need to string together some more nonconference wins before a difficult league slate that includes games against Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Purdue, among others.

Postgame Reaction

It was Ingram who carried the offense for large stretches of the game, and he commented on his performance, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com): “Shooters keep shooting, so if I'm knocking one down, I just keep shooting. And if my teammates find me, I know they trust in me that I'm going to knock the shot down.”

Part of the reason Ingram was so open was Indiana’s struggles on defense. Crean addressed that, per the Associated Press: “We were not nearly good enough on the ball tonight defensively, which forced us to help, which is what we don't want to do against a team that has shooters like that. We didn't get enough stops in a row. We didn't create enough pressure on them to put them in uncomfortable situations.”

Crean at least put the loss and the timing of it in perspective, per Osterman: “It’s Dec. 3. We’re really looking forward to getting back to practice. We’re eight games in.”

It is too early to panic, but the Hoosiers were completely overmatched in Wednesday’s contest. Krzyzewski weighed in on the game, per Keeley: “I’m sure they would have wanted to play better defense. But we were playing pretty good offense…For a period of time there, we just kind of scored.”

That is exactly what opponents will do against Indiana’s defense all season.