Howard Bison at Indiana Hoosiers

Indiana youth sparks win over Howard

Smith finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds. He and Durham, both freshmen, started the second half after combining for 19 points and seven rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.

"Justin had a good game," Indiana coach Archie Miller said. "He was given the opportunity to play inside. He got some catches around the bucket. That's where he's at his best. He was able to show in tight quarters what he can be for us.

"Al has a high-level basketball IQ for a freshman. Some of the plays he makes look easy. He'll only get better."

Indiana worked over Howard's defense with passing and ball movement, something that didn't happen in Friday's season-opening loss to Indiana State.

"There were a lot of unselfish plays," Miller said. "The game resembled what we want to be about."

Then IU's youth delivered. Smith, Durham and sophomore Devonte Green combined for 19 of IU's first 21 points. The Hoosiers ended the first half on a 12-4 run for a 37-27 lead.

Juwan Morgan left the game after five minutes with a sprained ankle and never returned. Miller said he might be out for a while.

Davis finished with a team-high 17 points despite going just 3-for-10 from the line. He added six rebounds. Rob Johnson had 11 of his 14 points and three of his four assists in the second half.

"This was a good win for us," Miller said. "Anytime you have what happened to us on Friday night, it's tough to take. You question your confidence. You question your togetherness. You start to question some things. It was important for us to move on."

Indiana built leads as large as 18 points in the second half, but could never pull away.

"With the way we shoot the three, I thought we could make it a game," Howard coach Kevin Nickelberry said.

"Our guys hung in there. We live and die with our shots. I knew Archie would have them ready. They did a great job of defending us and taking away what we wanted to do.

"We're young. For 35 minutes, we had four freshmen on the floor."

Freshman guard RJ Cole led the Bison (0-2) with 27 points and eight assists with just one turnover in 39 minutes.

"He's talented," Nickelberry said. "I've been coaching 29 years. I coached in the NBA. He's one of the best freshman point guards I've ever coached. He's a conductor. He makes sweet music."

BIG PICTURE

UP NEXT

Indiana's hectic opening schedule continues with a trip to No. 23 Seton Hall as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games on Wednesday.

Howard won't get much time to rest. It travels to No. 18 Gonzaga on Tuesday. It will be the third of seven straight road games to open the season.

TURNING POINT

Indiana needed to show it could bounce back after the Indiana State loss, and did. It handled Howard's zone, which showed attention to detail given it hadn't worked on its zone offense much in practice. Indiana State only played man defense.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Indiana's defense, which had been burned for 90 points against Indiana State, held Howard to 36 percent shooting. However, it gave up 13 three-pointers. That's 30 in two games. "We have to work hard to look at how to eliminate the three-point shot better," Miller said. "If it stays at that rate, it's not a good thing."

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More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org

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