Indiana Basketball: Hoosiers drop 4th straight with loss to Purdue

The Indiana Hoosiers drop their 4th straight with a 70-55 loss at Mackey Arena to arch nemesis Purdue

In what has been the epitome of this season, an 11-2 deficit to start the game put the Hoosiers in a hole early. Indiana came back late in the first half to secure a 24-21 lead with 5:21 to go but that was the extent of the Hoosiers lead for the afternoon.

The Boilermakers finished the first half on a 12-2 run inspired by Nojel Eastern and never looked back. Purdue kept the pressure on in the 2nd half taking an 18 point lead midway through the 2nd half.

The Hoosiers were hindered by the 2nd foul of Romeo Langford with 17:06 left in the 1st half, who only played three more minutes in the half due to fears of picking up a 3rd foul.

In addition to being in foul trouble early, the Purdue defense stifled Langford every touch of the ball. He had his most quiet game of the season shooting 2-for-10 from the field with four points, his first single-digit output of the season, while going 0-for-3 from beyond the arc and missing all four free throws he attempted at the line.

This was unprecedented as he’s averaging 18.8 points per game this season and has been named B1G Freshman of the Week four times. The fans of Mackey Arena had their fun chanting “Overrated” all game.

One player who stepped up today was Justin Smith who recorded 15 points and five rebounds on 7-for-8 shooting. Smith’s performance has been steadily improving this season. Juwan Morgan (16.5 PPG) finished with 14 points going 6-for-10 from the field while bringing down six rebounds and dishing out five assists.

Al Durham added eight points coming back from an ankle injury stemming from the  Nebraska game on Monday.

Carsen Edwards, albeit registering 20 points on the stat sheet, shot 6-for-18 from the field and 3-for-10 from beyond the arc, but when Purdue needed him to make a big shot, he stepped up.

Haarms added 12 while Eastern finished with 10. Trevion Williams and Ryan Cline respectively finished with eight a piece.

Going into the contest, the Hoosiers were converting outside at the clip of 35.2 percent. This afternoon, the team collectively made 4-of-20 tries.

In what appears to be the thorn in the teams side, free throws were again a burden to a team that has struggled mightily at the line this season. Indiana has shot 66 percent from the stripe this season according to the NCAA website which ranks as the 290th best for D1 basketball programs. This afternoon, the Hoosiers shot a putrid 7-for-18 from the stripe. At a rate of 38.9 percent, they left 11 points on the table.

Indiana has now fallen to a 12-6 (3-4) record in the midst of this four game slide.

Looking ahead, the Hoosiers face Northwestern in Evanston on Tuesday. They have a tough stretch of games coming up with Northwestern, Michigan, Rutgers and Michigan State slated on the schedule. Coach Archie Miller has to make an adjustment to get back on a winning track.