IU’s Galloway had big game but missed huge late-game 3 vs. KU: ‘I thought it was good’

Trey Galloway, a true Hoosier who hails from Culver, Indiana, scored a career-high 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting in Indiana’s 75-71 loss to No. 2-ranked Kansas on Saturday at Assembly Hall.

Unfortunately for Indiana, but quite fortunately for KU, the 6-foot-5 senior misfired on a possible game-winning 3-pointer with just 21 seconds left, the Hoosiers down 71-69. His 3-pointer with 54 seconds remaining had cut a five-point Jayhawks lead to two.

“Of course,” said Galloway, whose previous high for points in a game was 20, when asked if he’d fire up the same shot in a similar situation in the future. “I mean, I thought it was good. I mean, not all shots fall. Next opportunity I get, I’m going to shoot it again and make sure I make it.

“I’ve got to keep trusting my work because I work hard for this. I know I’m going to be able to make shots. Next one I get, I’m going to make sure I knock it down.”

Of Galloway’s performance, IU coach Mike Woodson said: “He had a good game. It was good to see because he’s had his ups and downs this season. But tonight he had a solid basketball game. It just hope he can build on that.”

The Hoosiers (7-3) played much better Saturday than the previous Saturday, when Auburn clobbered IU 104-76 in Atlanta.

“I’d say just our competitiveness — I mean, we got out-toughed against Auburn — and it showed in the second half, late in the first half (against KU),” Galloway said. “I think we took the right step forward. Obviously we didn’t get the job done today, but they’re a great team right now.

“They’ve got a lot of experienced guys that have been there for a while, have championship DNA. I think for us to learn from this because, I mean, it hurts and stings, but there’s a lot of good things to take away from it, too.”

The Hoosiers fell to 7-3 while KU, which beat Indiana by 22 points last year in Lawrence, improved to 10-1. Saturday’s victory marked KU’s first win at Assembly Hall in four tries.

“I don’t think our defensive intensity was there the second half like we started the game and finished the first half,” Woodson said. “They picked their defense up. It was obvious. They held us to 31 points and we gave up 43 (second half).”

The Hoosiers led by eight at halftime and 13 with 15 minutes left.

“For the most part I thought we played a solid game,” Woodson said, “but they made the plays coming down the stretch. The two 3s they made (by Dajuan Harris, making it 59-58, and Kevin McCullar, busting a 64-64 tie) were huge. Then the two buckets Dickinson hit in the paint (in last five minutes) were kind of the difference in the game coming down the stretch.”

Woodson was asked if Saturday’s close finish might be considered a moral victory after the Auburn loss.

“We’ve been in a lot of close games, even the early games we’ve had, and we didn’t cave. I thought tonight we didn’t make the plays defensively that we needed to make in a game like this,” Woodson said. “But it’s a game that we can definitely build on, especially after you come out of a game like the Auburn game.

“I didn’t know which way we would go. I thought we played pretty well. You got to tip your hat to Bill (Self, KU coach) and his team because they did everything they needed to do to secure the win down the stretch. We just didn’t get it done.”