Indiana Basketball: Top 10 games of the decade, #6

As the Indiana basketball team rolls into the new decade its time to take a look back over the past ten years. We rank the top ten games of the decade and today we look at number six.

Indiana has played a lot of great games over the decade and we have already looked at four of them. The latest was a great NCAA tournament game against VCU to get them to their first Sweet 16 in a decade. Before that, we had wins over rivals Notre Dame and Kentucky. There has only been one Big Ten game so far, but that changes today as we look at a three-overtime thriller.

We continue our look at the ten best games of the decade with game number six.

Indiana 110 Penn State 102  3 OT

Assembly Hall – February 1, 2017

The final score of this game looks weird, but the Hoosiers were able to pull out this marathon of a game in three overtimes. They finally took control in that third extra stanza when Josh Newkirk hit a three and Devonte Green stole the inbound pass and laid it in for a five-point lead. Indiana would build a ten-point lead and eventually win by eight that turned an extremely close game into a mini-blowout.

But before that third overtime, this was a tense close game. After a first half that saw Indiana take a nine-point lead into the break, the Nittany Lions fought back and tied it seven minutes into the second half. The game would go back and forth for the rest of the game.

Penn State was close to winning the game at the end of regulation and the first overtime. The Hoosiers De’Ron Davis would hit two free throws with just under four seconds left in regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime.

In the first overtime Penn State again led by two late, when Newkirk drove the lane and hit a layup that just beat the buzzer.

That layup would send the game into a second overtime, where Indiana would lead by two late but Tony Carr would be the one to save the game this time. He hit two free throws with just four seconds left to send the game to a third overtime.

The third overtime, though, is when Indiana would take over and win the nearly three-hour game. The Hoosiers had career highs from Newkirk who had 27, Thomas Bryant with 31, and Robert Johnson with 27. Indiana would need all of those points in one of the longest games Indiana has ever played.