Indiana basketball's Lamar Wilkerson helps close out win over Washington

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball faced tense moments down the stretch on Sunday night against Washington after leading by as many as 15 points in the second half.

The Hoosiers (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten) closed out a 90-80 win by overcoming a poorly timed scoring drought down the stretch that allowed the Huskies (9-4, 1-1) to cut the lead to six points with less than four minutes to go.

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Indiana turned to guard Lamar Wilkerson for a pair of clutch baskets, a 3-pointer and finger roll on a drive through the paint, to help keep his team in the driver's seat. Wilkerson scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half for the Hoosiers.

Sam Alexis finished the job by slamming home a miss off the rim from Tayton Conerway with 57 seconds to go.

More: IU shows NCAA tournament promise, but must improve over break for Big Ten tests

Indiana basketball freshman Trent Sisley takes over at Assembly Hall against Washington

With Tucker DeVries on the bench in foul trouble early in the second, freshman Trent Sisley took over with a 10-0 run all by himself.

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Sisley knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers and his teammates didn’t let his hot hand go to waste. He showed his versatility with a nice little hook shot in the paint then scored on a reverse layup off a cut under the basket to put IU up 69-57 with 11:58 to go.

It was his first double-digit scoring game since he put up 14 points in a 100-56 win over Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 29. With Sisley dealing, DeVries didn’t check back in until there was 9:17 left in the game.

Sisley’s success was part of a strong overall performance from IU’s bench with Reed Bailey and Nick Dorn also making key contributions while playing 20-plus minutes each. The Hoosiers' bench outscored Washington's reserves 26-11.

Indiana basketball doesn’t need to shake off any rust against Washington

Indiana basketball opened the game hitting five straight from 3-point range with Tayton Conerway knocking (3 of 3) and Conor Enright (2 of 2) accounting for all the scoring. That was more 3-pointers for Conerway in the first 4:12 of the game than he’s had in a single game this season.

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There were eight lead changes in the opening minutes with only one empty trip down the floor for either team in the first seven minutes.

Indiana averaged 2.2 points per possession through the first 10 minutes of the half while jumping out to a 35-27 advantage. The Hoosiers had a stretch where they made six straight field goal attempts with multiple reserves on the floor.

Enright put a bow on the high-scoring half by banking in a wild over the shoulder shot while getting shoved out of bounds near the end of the half. He hit a free-throw for the 3-point play to give him a season-high 11 points to help give his team a 52-40 lead at the half.

As a team, IU shot 67.9% in the half (6 of 12 from 3-point range) and were a perfect 10 of 10 from the free-throw line.

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Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU basketball returns to court after lengthy layoff with win over Washington