IU basketball can’t get Purdue ‘under control’ in second half of lopsided loss at Mackey Arena

Tucker DeVries handles the ball at Purdue.

WEST LAFAYETTE – The locker room configuration in Mackey Arena makes it likely that the two head coaches will cross paths after halftime.

On Friday night, at 9:11 p.m local time, Darian DeVries and Matt Painter walked a dozen feet from one another. A stoic DeVries walked and talked with FOX’s sideline reporter Allison Williams. Behind him, Painter caught up with a basketball alumnus, laughing and joking as they walked toward the tunnel.

Painter’s Boilermakers held a 17-point advantage as the two teams went back onto the floor.

Seven minutes of real time later, DeVries had already taken his second timeout of the half with his team behind by 23. By 9:51 p.m., Painter leaned back against his chair as DeVries motioned for his final timeout.

“I didn’t think we had them under control at all to start the half and didn’t want to have happen what happened and have it get away from us too quickly,” DeVries said postgame. “So, trying to burn the timeouts early to see if we can grab something, get something going, but we just couldn’t get anything going there.”

But the damage was already done.

Turnovers and fouls mounted as part of a woeful second half, leading to a 93-64 loss for Indiana on the road against its in-state rival.

That loss of control is becoming familiar for Indiana. Just five days earlier in Champaign, a seven-point halftime deficit ballooned into a 20-point loss.

It’s another example of an already developed theme. The Hoosiers haven’t had many games this season that didn’t involve a long scoring drought or collapse in the final 20 minutes.

At times, the team has gotten away with it, but not on Friday. Not against a Purdue team that desperately wanted to avenge its January loss in Bloomington. The Boilermakers took firm control late in the first half and kept the momentum throughout the second half.

Indiana appeared dazed as Mackey Arena crescendoed and Purdue pounced on its opportunity to put the Hoosiers away. With their lead up to 32 points at the final media timeout, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith joked in the huddle as blank stares and long faces filled Indiana’s bench a minute before the horn.

It was the body of work that led to the stark difference in in-game huddles.

Indiana had no answer for the flawless basketball Purdue was playing. The Boilermakers shot 66.7 percent from the field in the second half, including six made shots from distance. And as each shot fell, so too did Indiana’s shoulders.

In a similar fashion to the Illinois game, the Hoosiers didn’t put up much of a fight in the final minutes. Purdue continued its onslaught to the very end – even with its walk-ons in.

Purdue countered every adjustment Indiana made in the second half.

“It seemed like they had an answer for whatever we did,” Darian DeVries said. “We came with different guys, and they seemed to have a solution for a lot of it.”

The lone bright spot for the visitors in the second half was Lamar Wilkerson, who scored 18 points after intermission. But he was alone in the comeback attempt as the Hoosiers suffered their largest margin of defeat to Purdue since March of 1969.

“Nights like these are hard,” Darian DeVries said postgame. “I thought they did everything they needed to do to put us in some tough spots tonight and took advantage of it, especially on the offensive end.

“We just could never get them under control.”

Back-to-back road losses to top-10 teams won’t tank a résumé — but getting blown out won’t help. Indiana now returns home for three straight games, still in position for an NCAA tournament bid.

“We played two really good teams and got beat on the road,” DeVries said. “Disappointed we weren’t more competitive, but we’ve got to let those go. We can’t hang on to this one very long. Tuesday’s the next big one.”

With four games left in the regular season, Indiana remains in control of its own destiny.

Any encore of the last two second halves, however, and DeVries’ team would be back on the outside, looking in.

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