By RALPH D. RUSSO <\/p>\n\n\n\n
AP College Sports Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Trayce Jackson-Davis made staying up late worthwhile for Indiana fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The All-American did it all with 24 points, 11 rebounds, five blocked shots and five assists as Indiana defeated 13th-seed Kent State 71-60 Friday night to reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth-seeded Hoosiers (23-11) advanced to play fifth-seeded Miami on Sunday for a trip to Kansas City for the Midwest Region semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jackson-Davis became the first player since blocks became an official NCAA statistic in 1985-86 to have at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and five assists in an NCAA Tournament game, according to OptaSTATS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We’re not trying to hide how we play. He’s been the focal point of our offense, and he’s got to anchor our defense, rebounding and blocking shots for us,” second-year Indiana coach Mike Woodson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last of 32 first-round games to tip off was played in front of mostly Indiana fans and their team delivered a no-drama victory to cap what was already a pretty good day. Earlier, the Hoosiers’ in-state, Big Ten rival Purdue became the second No. 1 seed in the history of the tournament to lose to a 16 seed when Fairleigh Dickinson pulled the stunner in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mid-American Conference champs from Kent State couldn’t muster any such magic, shooting 32% from the field. Sincere Carry scored 15 points to lead the Golden Flashes (28-7), who had won six straight heading into tournament under former Indiana assistant coach Rob Senderoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It wasn’t for lack of effort at all,” Senderoff said. “It just, you know, shots didn’t fall.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well past midnight, Jackson-Davis gave MVP Arena a jolt with six straight spectacular points in the second half. The run started with a one-handed dunk, soaring down the lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I finally got a little bit of a groove and had a big play, an energy play,” Jackson-Davis said. “Whenever that happens, my teammates try to get me the ball and they put me in great positions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A smooth baseline drive was next, followed by a spinning layup to make it 62-50 with 7:39 left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I thought he made about three or four plays down the stretch to put the game out of reach,” Woodson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Race Thompson matched a season high with 20 points for the Hoosiers on 8-of-11 shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hoosiers had a 35-27 at halftime as Thompson took advantage of a Kent State defense that was working hard to limit Jackson-Davis. Thompson scored 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Jackson-Davis more than made his presence felt with 10 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks, including a chase down swat of Jalen Sullinger’s layup in the final seconds of the half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The big, Davis, he dominated tonight. So props to him,” Sullinger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BIG PICTURE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kent State: Its last NCAA victory was in 2002, when the Golden Flashes made a surprising run to the Elite Eight before being eliminated by Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indiana: The Hoosiers played around a quiet night from star freshman Jalen Hood Schifino, who scored eight points while dealing with foul trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UP NEXT<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indiana: The Hoosiers have played the Hurricanes once, losing 58-53 in Miami in December 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By RALPH D. RUSSO AP College Sports Writer ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Trayce Jackson-Davis made staying up late<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19859,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/19859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}