BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There are so many new faces in Indiana's basketball program that most everyone is still trying to figure out just how good they really are. Sure, they came into Tuesday night's game with Kansas State of the Big 12 still undefeated, but a mostly soft schedule left more questions than answers.

That's why this game had a lot of extra meaning to it.

It was a game against an opponent we had actually heard of before (Kansas State), from a league (Big 12) ranked No. 2 in the country behind the Big Ten. And there was also the individual challenge of stopping Wildcats point guard P.J. Haggerty, who was leading the nation in scoring (28.0 points per game) coming into the nationally televised showdown at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. 

You had questions? Well, Indiana had answers.

The Hoosiers got 21 points from center Reed Bailey and 19 from guard Tayton Conerway to grab an 86-69 win, pushing their record to 6-0. Conor Enright and the Hoosiers defense completely frustrated Haggerty all night. He missed 10 shots, had six turnovers and scored a season-low 16 points. Kansas State (5-2) trailed by as much as 23 points in the second half.

Yes, it was. that impressive. Indiana did most everything right on a high-profile night that mattered a lot to them, too. Cupcake wins are one thing, but this was a bigger deal. Enright was fired up to defend Haggerty, and the Hoosiers were excited to show the nation just how good they really are.

Mission accomplished, at least for one night. 

"He's just a guy like that, a lot of people just see it during the games and stuff, but (Enright) is like that in practice. He's like that everywhere,'' Conerway told reporters after the game. "That's just Conor. I told him on the bench, like, 'man, you're one of my favorite players to play with.'

"He makes basketball so much easier. Just putting him on somebody like PJ, and then he didn't back down, man. He wanted all the smoke. He started talking about it three days ago. He was excited for this game. He wanted to see what he could do, stepping up to the challenge. We wanted to do it as a team. We wanted to build walls, make sure we got back. We knew they played good in transition so if we could slow them down and make them have to run their sets and make somebody else beat us, we knew we would have a good chance.''

The Hoosiers won thanks to dominating runs to start each half. He scored the first eight points orf the game and dashed out to a 20-4 lead with 10:33 to go in the half. Kansas State got back within two points, but the Hoosiers went on a 13-3 run to end the half and then outscored the Wildcats 1-2 to open the second half.

They also did all this without a lot of production from leading scorer Tucker DeVries, who only had nine points on the night, and only four came in the first 37 minutes of the game. They got their points from other sources, picking apart Kansas State's soft defense throughout the game.

Bailey, a 6-foot-10 transfer from Davidson, slashed his way to open gaps in the paint all night long. His 21 points tied a season high — he also had 21 in the season opener against Alabama A&M — and made 13 of his points from the foul line. He attacked the rim all night, and the Wildcats never had an answer. Indiana shot 71 percent from two-point range on the night, and made 22-of-29 free throws.

"He makes basketball easy, man. He a big ol' guard, man,'' Conerway said of Bailey. "He knows what is he's doing down there. He plays the five for us, but he can dribble. He can shoot. He can pass. He's a Swiss Army knife. There's nothing he can't do.''

Conerway had a big night, too, pushing the pace and attacking the rim. He had 19 points after scoring just 7 and 9 in wins over Lindenwood and Incarnate Word. 

This win came against a good Kansas State team, and it meant a lot to the Indiana players, too. There were a few snickers when they entered the top-25 on Monday, because they looked fairly average in two no-name wins last week. They hadn't really looked like one of the best teams in the country.

This was a statement win, to be sure.

"I think we proved we can hang with the best of them,'' Bailey said of the win over Kansas State. "They came in averaging 90-something points a game and that's a tough ask when you've got a guy like (Haggerty) that can score 30.

"I think it showed that we're just scratching the surface and we're here to stay for sure, and we just want to keep out and keep playing our basketball.''

Indiana is back home on Saturday against Bethune Cookman, and then it gets real. The Hoosiers have two December Big Ten games — at Minnesota (Dec. 3) and home against Penn State (Dec. 9) — plus huge rivalry tests against No. 6 Louisville in Indianapolis on Dec. 6 and at Kentucky on Dec. 13.

Beating Kansas State — and in a rout, no less — says a lot.

"We thought we needed to get more paint touches in the second half, so we wanted to run a little bit more of our stuff where we got Tayton going downhill getting to the rim,'' Indiana coach Darian DeVries said. "We were able to create a little confusion when they were switching, and I thought Tayton did a good job of capitalizing on that.''

DeVries also loved what Enright did, frustrating Haggerty all night. That was a game-changer, for sure.

"He's so valuable to a team, and that's all he cares about. Like, he loves that challenge. He's been that way his whole life,'' DeVries said of Enright. "Just let me go guard him. Let me dive on the floor. Let me take charges. Let me do all the scrappy things that impact winning.

"He doesn't care about scoring. He can score, but he doesn't care. He just wants to win. That's why he's the ultimate team guy. I love having him out there. You can see why watching him against a guy that averaging 28 points, coming into it, he did an unbelievable job.''

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