BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — We've seen a disturbing trend with Indiana's basketball team through the first two months. They start games on wildfire, racing out to big leads by knocking down threes and playing stout defense, but they stagger to the finish line, even in routs.

They just haven't been a good second-half team through 13 games. Sure, they are 10-3 and sort of sniffing the top-25, but the same bad things keep happening over and over. 

It happened again on Monday night. In its final nonconference game of the season against the Siena Saints from Albany, N.Y., the Hoosiers won 81-60 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. They were brilliant early, with leading scorer Lamar Wilkerson scoring 19 first-half points, the defense on lockdown mode — it was 13-1 through the first six minutes — and the Hoosiers making seven threes. It was 46-20 at the half — a complete blowout.

They looked so good — on both sides of the floor.

"We were just sharing the ball, ''Indiana guard Tayton Conerway said. "We had this thing where we talked about it first, giving up a good shot for an even better shot. I feel like we did a great job of that.''

But then they staggered their way through the second half, which has happened a lot this year. They were outscored 40-35, made just two three-pointers and looked average at best.

Sure, they won by 21 and Siena got no closer than 17. But still, it needs to be better.

"First of all, I thought the first half was exactly what we wanted. You get a lead, and you're up 26,'' Indiana coach Darian DeVries said. "The good part is, if that's what we've got to work on, that's a good thing if we've got to figure out how to figure that problem out.

"I thought the second half we just lost a little bit of our edge both ends of the floor. First half, when we were getting stops, it allowed us to get out in transition, allowed us to get our shooters free. Second half we weren't quite as stingy defensively and we're taking the ball out of the net a lot more, and the game really just slowed down at that point.

"That game was just a choppy game. A lot of fouls, a lot of dead-ball situations and things, so we never really had any flow in that second half. But after a little lull there, I thought we were able to get it pushed back out. I thought Tayton did a good job getting downhill and getting to the rim and creating some things for us to open that thing back up again.''

Wilkerson led the way with 23 points, but had just four in the second half. Three others were in double figures. Conerway and Tucker DeVries had 16 points each, and Nick Dorn added 11 off the bench.  

There were 40 fouls called in the game — 20 on each side — and there wasn't much flow to the game. But the Hoosiers made 26-of-30 free throws, good for 86.7 percent — and the seventh time they've shot over 80 percent from the line this season. (By comparison, last year's Hoosiers did that only five times all year.)

Indiana has trailed at halftime just once all season — the ugly December loss to Louisville in Indianapolis when they got outscored 16-0 out of the gate. But there has also been just one time in their 10 wins (Milwaukee) where they played better in the second half than they did in the first.

Just once. All year.

Their average first-half lead in 17.38 points per game. Their second-half margin is just plus 3.31.

That's a wild discrepancy. They also had second-half leads against Minnesota and Kentucky, and lost anyway in two games they really needed to win.

"Yes, just trying to weather the storm. We know, whenever we come back out there and we're up 20, we know this team is going to come out and try to punch us first,'' Conerway said of the hot/cold halves. "We're trying to weather that first little four or five-minute storm.

"If we can't punch them in the mouth first, we've got to definitely rebound the ball and lock into the little details whenever we come out of that second half.''

This is a team with 13 brand new players, and getting used to playing with each is still a challenge. They are learning along the way, but has it been quick enough? The Big Ten season re-starts on Jan. 4 at home against Washington.

The second-half lulls can't continue throughout January and February. They know that. We know that. Everyone knows that.

 "I definitely think we took a lot of big steps, being able to understand what each other's really good at,'' Conerway said. "We kind of know where, like, if we set a screen for somebody, we know if they're going to roll, we know if they're going to pop.

"At first, we didn't know. We didn't know who were our best shooters, we didn't know who was going to do what, but everybody buying into their role definitely helped us a lot.''

Indiana's first-half leads

Alabama A&M — 36
Marquette — 18
Milwaukee — 12
Incarnate Word — 16
Lindenwood — 16
Kansas State — 12
Bethune-Cookman — 28
Minnesota — 0
Louisville — minus-14
Penn State — 32
Kentucky — 7
Chicago State — 23
Siena — 26
Average — 17.38 ppg

Indiana second-half scores

Alabama A&M — plus 11
Marquette — plus 5
Milwaukee — plus 19 *
Incarnate Word — plus 4
Lindenwood — plus 4
Kansas State — plus 5
Bethune-Cookman — plus 18
Minnesota — minus 8
Louisville — plus 5*
Penn State — plus 9
Kentucky — minus-19
Chicago State — minus 3
Siena — minus 5
Average — 3.31 ppg
* better second half from first halves (2)