Purdue 48 Indiana 46: Three Keys | Final Box Score | Specialty Stats

Indiana lost to Purdue on Tuesday night to fall to 13-13 overall and 4-11 in Big Ten play.

The Hoosiers return to action on Friday night at Iowa.

Stay tuned later for a complete recap with The Report Card.

THREE KEYS TO THE GAME

That is what REAL effort looks like. Let’s be real, the Marquette game was won with great efficiency from the field. Nobody loses shooting 65%. This game, this, is what a real sustained 40 minute effort looks like. Ultimately it results in a loss, but this team has to walk away from this game feeling like they gave their best effort of the season. After another awful shooting night and 17 turnovers, it will have to go down not as a moral victory, but as something to build on.

Indiana’s depth is returning but there still isn’t enough offense. From Zach McRoberts to De’Ron Davis, Indiana now has a rotation that at least resembles what was envisioned at the beginning of the year. With everyone back that is going to come back, there must now be a final realization that this offense isn’t going to get meaningfully better. That Marquette game is now clearly more fluke than anything that you might expect to be something to build on down the stretch.

Indiana holds down Carsen Edwards but it wasn’t enough. If you were told that Carsen Edwards would go 4 of 24 overall and 0 for 10 from three point range, you probably would have predicted a Hoosier win. This was probably Indiana’s best team defensive effort of the season, holding a really good Purdue offense to 32%. Al Durham was exceptional on Edwards, as was Devonte Green and Rob Phinisee. But Edwards hit a couple shots late, including a dribble drive through three Indiana defenders to give Purdue a critical late bucket.