[Postgame 3-2-1] What We Learned From Indiana's Heartbreaking Loss At Purdue
Here are three stats, two additional observations, and one lingering question from Indiana's 81-76 defeat to Purdue.
WEST LAFAYETTE — After a back-breaking loss at home to Maryland, Indiana basketball took to the road to take on rival Purdue in Mackey Arena.
The Hoosiers, despite a strong surge in the second half led by Mackenzie Mgbako, once again fell in heartbreaking fashion to the Boilers. With the loss, Indiana drops to 14-8 overall and 5-6 in Big Ten play.
“It’s just about making plays down the stretch and securing the win,” Indiana head coach Mike Woodson said postgame. “We didn’t do it in the Maryland game, and tonight we had our chances. I mean, we couldn’t get the key stops.”
Here are three stats, two additional observations, and one lingering question from Indiana's 81-76 heartbreaking defeat to Purdue.
3 Meaningful Stats
1. Mgabko continues return to form, scores 25
Scoring hasn’t come easy lately for Mackenzie Mgbako. The sophomore slump hit against USC and began a stretch of uninspiring basketball for the Gladstone, New Jersey native.
Following a spurt late in the Northwestern game, Mgbako gained his confidence back and scored 16 points against Maryland.
Friday evening was no different from Sunday as Mgbako had a Jalen Hood-Schifino-lite performance, scoring 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including 2-of-5 from three.
The 25-point outburst was Mgbako’s conference-high and third time eclipsing the 20-point threshold in 11 Big Ten games.
2. Purdue had 26 points off turnovers
Though Indiana played its most complete game of the season, the turnover plague continued on Friday night.
Indiana had 20 turnovers over the course of the game, splitting 10 between each half.
The only thing worse than Indiana’s 20 turnovers is the 26 points Purdue converted off the giveaways.
“I thought that was huge,” Woodson said. “And on the road, you can’t turn it over like that, and they made us pay for it – they had 26 points off our turnovers.”
3. Reneau struggles, plays 8 minutes
With five days in between games, there was optimism that Malik Reneau would have ample time to recover from what was recently announced as a Grade 2 MCL Sprain.
The junior started for the second straight game, but a pair of early fouls led Reneau back to the bench for the rest of the half.
The second half wasn’t kind to the Miami native either. Reneau was whistled for his third foul a mere 22 seconds into the second half.
Unable to remain out of foul trouble, Reneau rarely saw the floor in the second half, finishing the game with three points, two rebounds, and three turnovers.
In his three games back from injury, Reneau has more fouls (9) than made shots (6) and is averaging five points a contest.
2 Important Observations
1. Indiana played a fantastic first half
There have been many gripes about Indiana’s inability to put together a full 20 minutes in conference play, but Friday night in a raucous Mackey Arena proved the opposite.
The back-and-forth first half had very little to do with defense, as each team shot the ball at an impressive clip. Purdue’s 50 percent from the field was overshadowed by Indiana, making 16-of-29 for 55.2 percent.
Indiana was led by Mackenzie Mgbako and Luke Goode, who combined for 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field, including four makes from deep.
One of Goode’s triples was to give Indiana a seven-point advantage at 36-29 with 4:12 left in the half. As a team, the Hoosiers made 6 of its 18 attempts from behind the arc.
Indiana’s rebounding advantage was sizable, winning the battle on the glass 19-12 in the first half. However, it lapsed in the half’s waning moments, cutting the Hoosier lead to four at the break.
2. Late game scenarios continue to befuddle Indiana
Like Sunday’s debacle against Maryland, Indiana’s complete effort was overshadowed by a collapse in the game’s final seconds.
Trey Kaufman-Renn converted on a turnaround hook shot to give the Boilermakers the lead with a dozen seconds to go, but the chaos had only just begun.
Following the basket, things went haywire for Indiana. Myles Rice, seemingly without direction, took an off-balanced 12-foot jumper that was tipped, and the ghosts of the 2022 game in Mackey reappeared.
Following the game, Woodson provided clarity on what happened.
“Once he took off I couldn’t get to him. It was too late,” Woodson said. “The official had went by… we gotta connect better.”
Even Matt Painter believed that Rice shouldn’t have had the ball at that particular moment.
“We were fortunate Trey Galloway didn’t have the ball in his hands at the end,” Painter said. “Let’s be frank about it. He was making plays.”
Back-to-back quad-one opportunities have resulted in Indiana snatching losses from the jaws of victory, and now Indiana heads into February licking its wounds.
1 Lingering Question
Can you consider this a morale victory?
Indiana was 11.5-point underdogs on Friday night and was one stop away from beating Purdue in Mackey, something that only one IU team has done in the past eight seasons.
That said, close losses at this juncture of the season aren’t particularly great for the resumé. Indiana has now let two key games slip away late, and is becoming dangerously close to having its bubble popped in the beginning of February.
It doesn't get much easier, especially at the Kohl Center, but if Indiana can give a full 40-minute effort in Madison, then there is reason to believe that the drought will be over, and fate could change for Mike Woodson’s squad.
“It's very frustrating, because we're right there. And we got to keep fighting. There's a lot of games left,” fifth-year senior guard Trey Galloway said. “The good thing is we have another great opportunity against Wisconsin. So we just got to look forward to that and learn from this.”
Painter knew PU was really lucky that Trey didn't have the ball in his hands as the final seconds ticked off. WHY not,,, is the question? Galloway's 2nd half, in particular, was fantastic! I only wish that he would have gotten a haircut, shaved, and ditched the headband by the start of January!!
Mark Deckard / GO IU!!