WEST LAFAYETTE – Indiana basketball and Purdue both entered Mackey Arena off of two losses. Indiana’s, in Champaign against Illinois, Purdue’s at home to Michigan. Two different losses, but both needed a rivalry win boost and a win Friday would provide just that.
Indiana defeated Purdue 72-67 in Bloomington on Jan 27. That night Indiana received its first quad one win. A lot went wrong for Purdue that night. But consider all that went wrong then fixable. Purdue corrected many of its mistakes and left Keady Court with a dominant 93-64 win Friday.
The first half started very slow for the Big Ten’s seventh ranked (Indiana) and third ranked (Purdue) offenses. The scoreboard read 15-8 Boilers at the under-12 media timeout. Purdue poured it on to finish the first half, ultimately taking a 46-29 halftime lead.
In game one, Purdue gave up a ton of looks for Indiana, resulting in a career night for Nick Dorn who had 18 points. Friday, Purdue didn’t give the Hoosiers any space to breathe and even attempt many looks. Tucker DeVries had two makes and Jasai Miles had one of his own in the first half, resulting in a 3-of-9 success rate. But forget missing 3s, Indiana took what felt like a season low for an opening half. In the first meeting, Indiana took 33 3s, and it only shot 20 Friday (made seven).
Out of the half Purdue brought a raucous Mackey back into the game with them. Purdue started the second frame on only a 12-6 run but caused two Darian DeVries timeouts: One before and one resulting in the U16 timeout. Purdue led 58-35 at that point.
Purdue outscored Indiana 35-29 the rest of the way en route to the blowout victory. It seemed like everything that went Indiana’s way at Assembly Hall was all reversed into the advantage of Purdue.
After a so-so performance at Assembly Hall, Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer did what they do best and put the pressure on Indiana, combining for 55 points. Loyer’s 16 came without a miss from both the floor and free-throw line. The senior from Fort Wayne was 5-of-5 from the floor, and 4-of-4 from both beyond the arc and free-throw line.
As the game started to get into uncompetitive waters, Boilermaker freshman guard Omer Mayer started to heat up. He had 18 in the game and 14 in the second half and was 5-of-5 from the floor and 4-of-4 from deep in the second frame.
Another area where Purdue corrected itself was on the glass. The cream and crimson out-rebounded the Boilers in the first meeting. Purdue reversed that immensely well and total rebounds 30-15.
The most impactful area where Purdue outdid its former self was combating the Indiana scoring. The aforementioned career 18 point performance from Dorn was the factor in the first win. Friday, Dorn had no points, two attempts, two misses.
Lamar Wilkerson led Indiana in scoring with 20, even with a two-point first half. Tucker DeVries had 11 points.
In the end, IU had another blowout loss on the road, and when it comes time to talk Tournament, those stack up. Indiana has two more chances to get its third quad one win: March 1 against Michigan State at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and March 7 at Schottenstein Center against Ohio State.
But up next, Indiana will host Northwestern, Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
COLUMN: The Hoosiers better be goldfish
