PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Indiana lost to Rutgers on Saturday afternoon by a final score of 63-48 at Jersey Mike’s Arena.
The Hoosiers (7-1) trailed 31-24 at halftime and were led in the game by Miller Kopp with 21 points.
Indiana will next host Nebraska on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern (BTN).
See also: Mike Woodson post-game video.
THREE KEYS TO THE GAME
1. Rutgers collapses in the paint. The Scarlet Knights were intent on making someone other than Trayce Jackson-Davis beat them. They doubled, even tripled the post and limited Jackson-Davis to 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting. With all of the focus inside, IU made just 11-of-31 shots (35.5 percent) from 2-point range as a team. After scoring more than 50 points in the paint against North Carolina, IU scored just 14 on Saturday. Race Thompson, Malik Reneau and Jordan Geronimo combined to go 1-of-11 from the field.
2. Hoosiers cold from three, with too many turnovers. Rutgers’ focus on defending the paint left openings on the perimeter, but Indiana made just 6-of-25 from three. Miller Kopp made 5-of-9, while everyone else made just 1-of-16. And many possessions didn’t lead to any scoring opportunities, as Indiana didn’t handle the Rutgers pressure effectively and turned it over 14 times against just nine assists.
3. Scarlet Knights outwork IU, own the offensive glass. Rutgers set the tone early with 13 offensive rebounds in the first 13 minutes of the game. The Scarlet Knights ended up with 17 offensive rebounds and got 17 second chance points. In total Rutgers outrebounded IU 47-33. In many more ways that are difficult to quantify, Rutgers was simply the more aggressive team and better equipped to handle a physical game. “They were tougher than us tonight,” IU coach Mike Woodson said after the game.
HIGHLIGHTS
FINAL BOX SCORE
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