At the Buzzer: Indiana 66, Rutgers 60

  • 02/07/2023 8:33 pm in

Quick thoughts on a 66-60 win against Rutgers:

How it happened

Indiana was sharp out of the gate Tuesday night at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers made the Rutgers defense look pedestrian for the first 12 minutes. By the 7:54 mark of the half, Indiana led 30-16 and the Scarlet Knight looked hapless offensively. But Rutgers began to find its groove from the perimeter. Oskar Palmquist splashed in two triples to make it 30-22. The Hoosiers stretched the lead back to 12 at 36-24 on a Trayce Jackson-Davis dunk, but the Scarlet Knights continued their perimeter onslaught to close the half. Aundre Hyatt splashed in a triple to make it 36-29, followed by another 3 from Cam Spencer to make it 36-32. After a Malik Reneau dunk, Hyatt hit another 3-pointer to make it 38-35 at intermission. Indiana had 1.19 points per possession in the first half, but allowed 1.1 points per trip to the Scarlet Knights.

The Hoosiers regained their focus defensively to begin the second half and opened a nine-point lead at 49-40 on a Miller Kopp layup at the 14:40 mark. But IU went cold offensively as Rutgers scored the next four points to make it 49-44 at the under-12 media timeout. Indiana led 54-44 on a Jackson-Davis dunk at the 11:09 mark, but didn’t score another point before the under-8 media timeout. After Kopp picked up his fourth foul, Caleb McConnell found Derek Simpson for a 3-pointer to make it 54-48 with 8:05 to go. Malik Reneau snapped a 3:22 scoring drought with a free throw at the 7:47 mark to make it 55-48. Indiana’s field goal drought continued through the final media timeout. The Hoosiers were clinging to a 3-point lead at 59-56 at that point. Out of the timeout, Race Thompson air-balled a fallaway shot, but Jackson-Davis grabbed the miss and put it back up to make it 61-56. The Hoosiers pushed the lead to seven on a Trey Galloway bucket with 48 seconds to go. That put the game away as Indiana snapped a six-game losing streak to the Scarlet Knights.

Standout performers

It was another brilliant performance from Jackson-Davis, who finished with 20 points, 18 rebounds and six assists. Jackson-Davis surpassed 2,000 career points in the victory. Kopp was also terrific, finishing with 18 points. He was 4-for-6 on 3-pointers.

Statistic that stands out

After allowing 1.1 points per possession in the first half, Indiana buckled down defensively in the second half. The Hoosiers allowed only 25 points in the second half and the Scarlet Knights managed just .862 points per possession in the second half.

Final IU individual statistics

Final tempo-free statistics

Assembly Call postgame show

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