Indiana Basketball: Poor shooting again dooms Hoosiers in loss to Purdue
By Adam Childs
The Indiana basketball team lost their fourth straight game when they dropped just their second home game of the year on Saturday.
The return of legendary head coach Bobby Knight for the first time in 20 years was not enough to get Indiana their first win since beating Michigan State two weeks ago. The General was honored at halftime along with the 1980 national championship game and the Hoosier fans were hoping that energy would lift Indiana to a win against rival Purdue, but poor shooting again doomed the Hoosiers.
Indiana would shoot just 43% from the field and 33% from deep in a game they desperately needed to win. Trayce Jackson-Davis led the way for the Hoosiers with 16 points, but eight of those came from the foul line. Jackson-Davis was mainly ineffective and it hurt the Hoosier’s chances. Combine that with Indiana hitting just 7 of 21 three-pointers and it wasn’t enough against a Purdue team coming off a huge win against Iowa.
The Hoosiers led the Boilermakers 28-25 with 3:47 left in the first half, but Purdue would finish on a 12-0 run to go into half time up 37-28. Indiana would spend most of the second half down by double-digits as the Boilermakers won comfortably 74-62.
Indiana made a quick run to cut it to six but couldn’t get any closer as the shot continued to not fall for the Hoosiers.
Purdue won the game because of their three-point shooting. They would hit 16 of 24 from deep including 5 of 8 from Sasha Stefanovic. It was the second great shooting night for the Boilermakers as they hit 19 threes against Iowa earlier this week.
It was a game both teams needed and Purdue seemed like they wanted it more. Indiana is starting to sit firmly on the bubble on the NCAA tournament after dropping its second home game in a row.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Hoosiers as they host Iowa before heading on the road to take on Michigan and Minnesota. Indiana needs to get back on the winning side of the scoreboard soon or they are going to be in danger of blowing a berth to the tournament for the second year in a row.
Next. Hoosiers in the middle of a muddled Big Ten. dark
The Hoosiers will next be in action when they host the Iowa Hawkeyes on Thursday from Assembly Hall in Bloomington. It will be another must-win for the Hoosiers before their two-game road trip.