Kel’el Ware has record performance for an Indiana basketball player in Sunday’s win

It’s just a few weeks in, but Indiana basketball center Kel’el Ware has turned out to be one of the best roster additions through the transfer portal around country.

He continued that trend in Sunday’s 89-76 win over Harvard.

The 7-foot center poured in 28 points on 12-of-13 shooting and added eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks. That set an Indiana basketball record.

Ware’s 92.3 percent from the field was the highest field goal percentage by an Indiana basketball player this century — with a minimum 10 attempts — per the Big Ten.

Ware started 8-of-8 from the field before missing his first attempt of the night, which he would clean up with an offensive rebound put back.

“He made some shots that were straight from Malik. He fed him a few times, he hit a few offensive put-backs, hit a couple of turnaround jump shots, made some free throws. He’s capable of doing that. We’ve just got to keep him in a good place and playing hard,” Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson said postgame. “I thought in New York in the UConn game, he didn’t play hard enough. I’m not saying that the reason why we lost, but he just didn’t play hard enough to me. I thought the Louisville game he came back and played a little harder. Tonight he played really hard and it was kind of nice to see him respond.”

Kel’el Ware is averaging 17.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.7 blocks and shooting 63.9 percent from the field. He is also 5-of-10 on 3s.

He’s had three of his highest-scoring performances in the last five games; 20 points against Army, 22 against Wright State and then Sunday’s 28-point performance.

In those three games Ware is 30-of-35 from the field.

Ware’s scoring outputs this season would all rank in the top-12 of his career scoring games.

“I would say I’m more in a groove now with Coach Woodson giving me that role where he trusts me enough to just go make the play and attack the basket, score, even throw it out to my teammates and just play smart on the court,” Ware said last week. “As long as I’m playing hard and just giving them that, then we should be good.”

Indiana now faces a gauntlet of an early season stretch. The next four games include: vs Maryland, at Michigan, vs Auburn (Atlanta), vs Kansas.

Indiana basketball is 5-1 this season and return to the floor on Friday.

SEE ALSO: Mackenzie Mgbako shines in Indiana basketball’s win over Harvard

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