By Jeff Washburn
jconline.com
LOUISVILLE – He is not yet at future Purdue teammate Chris Kramer’s level, but Indiana All-Star forward D.J. Byrd showed June 14 why he has the potential to be the Boilermakers’ next great defender.
With the North Montgomery standout limiting Kentucky Mr. Basketball Jon Hood to 2-of-12 shooting and only eight points, Indiana completed a two-game sweep, 64-49, in Knights Hall on the Bellarmine University campus.
West Lafayette coach David Wood’s Indiana All-Stars limited Kentucky to its poorest offensive output since 1948, when Indiana registered a 70-47 victory. Kentucky scored only 20 first-half points and finished 17 of 60 from the field.
“It was just limiting Jon Hood’s touches,” said Byrd, who had 10 points, an assist, and a steal. “We all know that he can score and is a good player. But when you take away some of his touches by denying him the ball, that’s less times that he has a chance to score.
“That was my main goal coming into this game. Offensively, I didn’t hit a lot of shots, but over the next six months, I am going to build a consistency of playing defense and also being able to do offense by getting stronger and having more endurance.”
The 6-foot-6 Hood, who averaged 28.8 points a game during his senior season at Madisonville-North Hopkins, scored 20 points in Indiana’s 78-65 victory on Saturday night in Conseco Fieldhouse. But when Byrd started on the University of Kentucky recruit Sunday, the Kentucky All-Stars never found any offensive rhythm.
Kentucky was 5 of 24 from the field during the first half, when Indiana built a 37-20 lead. Kentucky never got closer than 12 during the final 20 minutes.
Indiana, which has won 19 of this series’ past 22 games, got 14 points and eight rebounds from Indianapolis Cathedral forward Errick Peck. Byrd was Indiana’s only other double-figure scorer. Indiana Mr. Basketball Jordan Hulls from Bloomington South was 1 of 9 from the field but added five rebounds and five assists.
“Hood is sort of Kentucky’s motivation,” Byrd said. “He kept them going. He got frustrated, and then their team had a hard time coping with that.
“That’s what I needed to do for our team to win.”
Purdue recruit Patrick Bade of Franklin Central finished with two points and two rebounds while helping Indiana dominate the interior defensively. Indiana outrebounded Kentucky 51-46.
“We executed defensively very well,” Bade said. “We came in and stuck to our game plan, which was to play defense and go inside on offense, then just rebound. It all came through for us.
“We got great games from Peck, (Batesville’s) Colt Ryan, and (Mooresville’s) Matt Kenney. Nobody has discovered them yet, but they played well in both games.”
Wood was shocked to learn that Kentucky hadn’t failed to break the 50-point barrier in 61 years.
“I didn’t know that, but that feels really good,” Wood said. “Everybody knows I like defense. We did about three defensive drills all week. We asked our guys a couple of things on defense, and they went out and made that work.
“We were trying to put a man and a half on Hood and keep them out of the lane. We did a pretty darn good job of that. We started D.J. tonight because of his defense. We felt Byrd on Hood was a great matchup on Saturday night. Hood is a handful.”
Indiana went on a 30-10 run to take a 30-13 lead with 4:07 remaining in the first half on back-to-back 3-pointers from Ryan and Jake Odum of Terre Haute South.
A 3-pointer from Hulls gave Indiana a 60-39 advantage with 6:19 remaining, the Hoosiers’ largest lead.
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