Key takeaways from the Indiana basketball 79-70 loss to Northwestern

Indiana basketball fell to Northwestern on Wednesday night in a game that could have sparked a bit of a run as IU’s toughest stretch of the season gets underway. Instead, it was a 79-70 loss at the hands of the Wildcats.

After taking a six-point lead into the half, Indiana was outscored 54-39 in the second half.

Here are the key takeaways from IU’s loss to Northwestern.

Substitution patters re: Malik Reneau: Indiana had Malik Reneau back in the lineup and unfortunately it wasn’t a great return. He was sluggish, rusty and not ready to play significant minutes. Yet, Mike Woodson played him in critical moments of the night. He checked in at the 7:57 mark with Indiana down two points. He would go on to miss on two straight possessions and get beat on defense on the other end leading to a quick 8-0 run to push the lead to 10 points. Those moments with Indiana playing two bigs killed the momentum and halted any potential the rest of the night. There’s an understanding you want to get a guy like Reneau back in game shape, but to play him in those signifiant moments when he clearly hasn’t provided any lift is near malpractice from Mike Woodson. On the night he was -11 in 11 minutes and -8 in the second half in just two minutes, finishing 0-of-6 from the floor.

Indiana’s inability to defend Northwestern’s X-factor — Ty Berry: The x-factor for Northwestern this season has been Ty Berry and Indiana basketball *should have* known it. The Wildcats were 6-2 on the season when Berry scored in double-figures, and just 5-5 when he was in single digits. The root? His shooting. Berry had eight games of 10+ points but also eight games with three or less points. He had double digits in all but one game when he. made more than one three. On Wednesday, Berry hit two quick 3s en route to 11 straight points in the first half for Northwestern. He finished with 23 and was 7-of-10 on 3s Indiana had no answer for him regardless of who was defending him. Coming off of ball screens and rising up, playing off the ball and even creating some in the mid range, Berry dominated in every area.

Horrendous second half defense: After a very effective first half from the Hoosiers, the second half was anything but. Northwestern, who averages 72 points per game, scored 54 in the second half and scored 1.688 points per possession. The Wildcats tied their season high in made 3s of nine, in the second half alone, and finished 13-of-27 overall. They shot 62.5 percent from the floor after halftime and had 12 assists to just four turnovers in the final 20 minutes. Northwestern had four players with at least 11 second-half points. It was a 16-4 run from 7:57 to the 3:12 mark that would put the game away. Indiana basketball just couldn’t get out of its own way on either end of the floor, but specifically fell apart in every aspect on the defensive end of the floor giving Northwestern everything — and more — that it wanted.

Mackenzie Mgbako breaks out of slump: After scoring just 16 points across the last four games he poured in 20 points on Wednesday night. Over the course of 4.5 games, Mgbako was 0-of-17 from three before finishing 3-of-7 on the night. It was his best performance offensively in quite some time but it started with his ability to get into the paint and see some shots go down. He attacked aggressively and was able to finish at the rim and finish through contact. Indiana basketball needs Mgbako to play at that level moving forward.

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