IU basketball: Purdue 69 Indiana 67 — Three keys | Highlights

Indiana lost to Purdue on Saturday afternoon by a final score of 69-67 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.

Purdue led 33-29 at halftime. The Hoosiers were led in the game by Xavier Johnson with 18 points and 12 assists. Trayce Jackson-Davis added 15 points and Race Thompson had a team high 10 rebounds.

IU (18-12, 9-11) will next play in the Big Ten Tournament. They will be the No. 9 seed in the event, meaning they will play in the first game on Thursday in Indianapolis.

THREE KEYS TO THE GAME

1. Johnson elite, until he wasn’t. Xavier Johnson took the game over in the second half but made several mistakes down the stretch. He finished the game with 18 points, a career high 12 assists and 5 rebounds, but had two turnovers in the closing minutes, and a play on the final possession that could have been ruled as a third as he tried to draw a foul and threw up a wild shot from 35-feet away from the basket to effectively end the game.

2. Purdue dominates the offensive glass, gets to the line. The Boilers had 14 offensive rebounds and scored 15 points off of them. Indiana’s defense held Purdue to 39.7 from the field, their worst percentage of the season, but the Boilers got to glass throughout the game off their misses. While Purdue was more aggressive on the boards, IU was more foul prone. The Hoosiers were called for 21 fouls vs. just 11 against Purdue. That gave the Boilers 11 more free throw attempts than IU. The Hoosiers were a perfect 10-of-10 from the line.

3. No one but Kopp from three. Miller Kopp made four threes, but the rest of the IU team was 1-of-14 from deep. The Hoosiers were 21-of-40 from 2-point range. Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson combined to go 11-of-20 with 24 points and 16 rebounds. Kopp’s 14 points were his second highest scoring output of the season.