“I didn’t say a word.” Flory Bidunga changes technical game, Indiana All-Stars win at Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Flory Bidunga did not commit a technical foul in his three seasons with Kokomo.

He has one now.

Bidunga’s first — and likely only — coach of his high school career came Friday night against the Indiana All-Stars. And it was against the Kentucky All-Stars at Lexington Catholic High School, according to Bidunga and Indiana All-Stars coach John Peckinpaugh (his coach in Kokomo), without him saying anything.

“I didn’t say a word,” Bidunga said. “I worked for the rebound, buried it and took advantage of the moment. I didn’t say a word. But I don’t know what the referee heard.”

The technical foul changed the game, to say the least, in the Kentucky All-Stars’ impressive 103-82 victory. Bidunga, the Kansas recruit and Mr. Basketball, was whistled by the coach — his fifth foul — after his dunk with 10:26 remaining brought the Indiana All-Stars within 67-66. With Bidunga on the bench, Kentucky immediately went on a 19-2 run to take control of the game.

“He screamed,” Peckinpaugh said. “That kid didn’t commit a technical foul in his high school career. It’s ridiculous. He was fouled in maybe two or three high school games in his career. It’s an all-star game. People come to see the best players play. It’s a shame we didn’t see that tonight.”

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Kentucky’s Max Green, 6-6 from Holy Cross, came into his own during the stretch after Bidunga’s drill and finished with a game-high 36 points on 14-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range. points. Bidunga watched everything from the Indiana bench. He’ll get his chance for revenge Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in the second game of the annual June series.

“I would love to be alongside my teammates, making some defensive plays and getting some blocks,” said Bidunga, who played just 13 minutes due to fouls. “Just sitting there, watching everything happen, I was kind of depressed. But I’ll tell you one thing: you should have seen us in the locker room. We’ll be ready for tomorrow. We just want to play the game. We let them feel a little bit and that was the result of the game.”

In the first half, it looked like more of the same in a rivalry that the Indiana All-Stars have dominated for years, winning 43 of the last 50 games against Kentucky since 1998. Kentucky won a tough battle last year in Owensboro, 94-90, just the Kentucky’s third victory since 1998.

It didn’t look like it would be number 4 on Friday. The Indiana All-Stars led by 17 points with six minutes left in the first half. But Kentucky found some success on the offensive end, cutting Indiana’s lead to 49-43 at halftime.

Indiana seemingly took control again, scoring the first six points of the second half, including two dunks from Bidunga, to take a 12-point lead. But Kentucky hung around after that as Green heated up. Even before Bidunga’s technique, Kentucky already had momentum.

After the technique, it was closure.

“We’ve talked about this a lot,” Green said. “We have the chance to make history here. If we beat them, it will be the first time Kentucky has beaten them since 1986. We were down 18 at one point and were down six at halftime, but we knew if we kept Flory off the glass we had a chance. Obviously, it helped that he committed a foul. But we feel we are the better team.”

Kentucky certainly played like that in the second half, outscoring Indiana 60-33. While it didn’t come close to the largest margin of victory for Kentucky in a series dating back to 1940 (which was a 33-point victory in 1997), the final 10-minute intermission was a drubbing.

“Starting with me, I didn’t do a good job handling adversity well,” Peckinpaugh said. “It drains from me. Since I didn’t do it, our guys didn’t do it. We kind of left the snowball there. We’ll come back (Saturday morning) and start working and responding and try to get a win.”

Brownstown Central’s Jack Benter, a Purdue recruit, led the All-Stars with 16 points and six rebounds. Bidunga finished with 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting. IU Indianapolis recruit Keenan Garner of the Fishers had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds and Ben Davis standout KJ Windham added 12 points.

But it wasn’t enough to slow down the Kentucky freight train in the second half — especially with Bidunga out of the game.

“(Green) was always a great shooter,” Benter said of his former AAU teammate. “Our game plan was to stay out of it and not let him take open shots. But he hit some tough ones too.”

Kentucky will face a motivated Indiana team on Saturday. Bidunga had already been simmering on the bench for 10 minutes before the bell for Friday’s defeat even sounded.

“We’ve talked about it and we know they probably think he screwed up a little bit,” Green said. “They will come with fire tomorrow. Flory is a force, so we have to do the best we can with him.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared in the Indianapolis Star: Flory Bidunga technical foul condemns Indiana All-Stars x Kentucky