Trayce Jackson-Davis had 29 points and nine rebounds, Jordan Geromino scored a career-high 15 points and Indiana beat turnover-prone Wyoming 66-58 in a First Four game Tuesday night.
Indiana (21-13) earned an at-large bid after a good showing in the Big Ten Tournament, getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 in its first season under coach Mike Woodson. The Hoosiers move on as the 12th seed in the East Region and will face fifth-seeded St. Mary’s on Thursday.
With the crowd at University of Dayton Arena heavily tilted — Bloomington, Ind., is less than a three-hour drive away — the Hoosiers pulled to a 10-point lead with less than two minutes left.
Wyoming’s Drake Jeffries hit a pair of foul shots to get the Cowboys within six with 14 seconds left. But Jeffries had to foul Indiana’s Xavier Johnson, who hit a pair to put it out of reach.
Hunter Maldonado paced the Cowboys (25-9) with 21 points but turned the ball over 10 times. Graham Ike had 17 to go with nine rebounds. The Cowboys had 19 turnovers leading to 17 Indiana points.
Both teams were firing away from the outside early, but not much was falling. Indiana led 30-25 at halftime despite shooting just 32% and hitting 1 of 8 from 3-point range.
The Cowboys couldn’t keep the handle, turning the ball over 13 times in the opening half, including seven by Maldonado. Wyoming didn’t shoot much better in the half, either, just 39%.
Big picture
Wyoming: With an at-large bid from the Mountain West, the Cowboys hurt themselves with turnovers and shot 43.5%.
Indiana: The Hoosiers showed typical Big Ten aggressiveness in wearing down Wyoming as the second half wore on and taking control despite less-than-stellar shooting. They shot 41.9% but scored 46 points in the paint.
Up next
Indiana moves on to face St. Mary’s as the 12th seed in the East Region. Wyoming goes home.
