Indiana defeated Penn State 61-59 Thursday evening to advance to the Friday quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.
Now, the revenge tour continues as Indiana tries to reach the semifinals for a third straight season.
Like Thursday’s challenge, Indiana faces another team that swept them during the regular season — the No.3 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Nebraska beat IU by very similar scores — 86-70 on Jan. 3 in Lincoln, and 85-70 on Feb. 21 in Bloomington.
In the first meeting, NU made 12-of-32 from deep for the game, and Indiana was sloppy with the basketball. The Hoosiers had 19 total turnovers.
In Bloomington, IU fell behind 40-22 with 6:01 left in the first half, and the deficit swelled to 22 in the opening minute of the second half. They pulled all the way to within three — 59-56 with 11:27 left, but ran out of gas. The Huskers were 14-of-33 from three in this one.
Indiana’s guards struggled to produce in both games.
Keisei Tominaga averaged 24 points and made eight threes in the two games. He had .567/.421/.857 shooting splits.
Kel’el Ware averaged 18.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks in the two matchups.
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg was the co-Big Ten Coach of the Year.
The two sides have met once in the Big Ten Tournament. Indiana advanced with an 89-64 win in the opening round of the 2020 tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. That ended up being the final game of the season as the tournament was canceled the next day do to COVID-19.
Big Ten Tournament Game Day Essentials:
No. 3 Nebraska (22-9) vs. No. 6 Indiana (19-13)
- Tip Time: 9:00 p.m. ET, Friday (tip-time approximate)
- Location: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Television: Big Ten Network (Brandon Gaudin, Robbie Hummel and Andy Katz)
- Stream: Fox Sports
- IU Radio Network: IU Radio Network
- Point Spread: Nebraska is a 4.5 point favorite
- KenPom Projected Score: No. 29 Nebraska 76, No. 84 Indiana 70
- Series History: Indiana leads, 19-9.
Penn State Report Card:
Since there’s a quick turnaround, we’ll go with an abbreviated version of the Report Card.
Coaching (A) The story of the game was Indiana’s ability to contain Penn State guard Ace Baldwin, and Mike Woodson said the staff developed a third plan to try to stop him. And it worked, even without the services of Trey Galloway. It looked a lot like the adjustment Indiana made a year ago to contain Maryland’s Jahmir Young at the Big Ten Tournament.
“The first two times we played Penn State we dropped, and they just dissected everything that we did,” Woodson said. “The second time we played them, we tried to trap, and they made threes. They made nine threes in one game and 12 in the next game.
“So we just tried to stay as close to Baldwin as we could. Our bigs were more up, where he actually saw bodies, and we tried to play in to get out. We guarded the three-point line extremely well. They shot it well last night, and tonight we were really good in guarding it.”
Offense (C) Indiana didn’t shoot the ball well (39.3%, 25% from three), and the offense stagnated at times without Galloway in his playmaking role and pushing the tempo. But Indiana did shoot free throws well (14-of-18, 77%) and kept turnovers to a reasonable level with 12. Indiana scored .92 points per possession, which for the second straight game was their lowest such mark in a win this season.
Defense (A) Penn State’s 33.6% effective field goal percentage was the lowest by any team against IU this season. Of course anytime a team shoots that poorly, an off shooting night is part of the story. But Indiana contested just about everything in the paint and rarely left perimeter shooters wide open. As mentioned, their gameplan against Baldwin was excellent, as was the occasional use of a zone. Just about the only thing that went wrong was a high free throw attempt rate that allowed the Nittany Lions to stay in the game.
Player of the Game — Kel’el Ware (A). He paced the Hoosiers with his 15th double-double of the season. He posted 18 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks (and several more shots influenced), two steals, and one assist. His game-high 14 boards marked the second most (17 – Trayce Jackson-Davis; March 11, 2020) by a Hoosier in the Big Ten Tournament.
MORE PENN STATE GAME COVERAGE:
- IU’s Anthony Leal waited a long time for consistent opportunities, and he’s capitalizing on them
- Woodson says he doesn’t know if Galloway will be available for Big Ten Tournament
- Watch: Woodson, Ware, Leal discuss Indiana Big Ten Tournament win over Penn State
- IU basketball: Indiana 61 Penn State 59 — Three keys, highlights, final stats
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