Trey Galloway scored 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting, and Indiana escaped with a 69-63 win over visiting Florida Gulf Coast in the season opener for both teams Tuesday night in Bloomington, Ind.
Kel’el Ware, a transfer from Oregon, contributed a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds in his debut for Indiana (1-0). Malik Reneau finished with 15 points.
Zach Anderson led Florida Gulf Coast with 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting. Dallion Johnson contributed 17 points off the bench.
Florida Gulf Coast (0-1) trailed by 10 points with 1:28 remaining but went on an 8-0 run to slice the deficit to 65-63 with 35 seconds to go, with two 3-pointers from Anderson in that stretch. Indiana held on as Xavier Johnson made three free throws in the closing seconds and Ware added one more.
The Hoosiers maintained a narrow lead for the first six-plus minutes of the second half.
Florida Gulf Coast evened the score at 40-40 on a 3-pointer by Anderson with 13:52 remaining. Rahmir Barno earned an assist on the play.
By the under-12-minute timeout, the Eagles nudged ahead to a 45-42 lead. Dallion Johnson drained a 3-pointer to put Florida Gulf Coast ahead by one point, and Cyrus Largie made a driving layup on the next possession to increase the lead to three.
Coming out of the timeout, Dallion Johnson hit another 3-pointer off an assist from Barno. That marked his fifth 3-pointer of the game and increased Florida Gulf Coast’s lead to 48-42.
Indiana responded with a 14-0 run to seize a 56-48 lead.
Each basket prompted the home crowd to cheer louder as the Hoosiers put the pressure on the Eagles. A 3-pointer by Xavier Johnson made it 10 straight points for Indiana and prompted Florida Gulf Coast to call a timeout as they trailed 52-48.
After the timeout, Indiana kept rolling. Ware made a jump shot, and Reneau made a pair of free throws on the next possession to put the Hoosiers on top by eight.
Dallion Johnson made a baseline jump shot to cut the deficit to 56-50 and snap a 5:02 scoring drought.
Indiana led 28-26 at the half.
–Field Level Media