Epic Days by Hood-Schifino, Jackson-Davis Go To Waste in 84-83 Loss to Northwestern

Jalen Hood-Schifino scored a freshman-high 33 points and Trayce Jackson-Davis had 24 rebounds, the most by an Indiana player since 1971, but it still wasn't enough in a disappointing 84-83 loss to Northwestern. It was the Hoosiers' first home loss of the season.

Tom Brew | Jan 8, 2023

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — During games where you're scrambling through the record books not once but twice, the day usually ends with an Indiana victory at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

The No. 15-ranked Hoosiers had two epic performances on Sunday — but they were completely wasted. Point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino scored 33 points, the most by a freshman since Eric Gordon in 2007, and senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis had 18 points, 24 rebounds and eight assists, and those 24 boards where the most since Steve Downing in 1971, a whopping 52 years ago.

Despite that, the sullen Hoosiers had to walk out or Assembly Hall with heads hung low, losing 84-83 to Northwestern in a game that was never that close. It was the Hoosiers' first home loss of the season after eight straight wins, and they are now 10-5 on the year and just 1-3 in the Big Ten.

And they've also been incredibly disappointing the last month or so, with defensive issues and turnovers the primary culprits.

They've given up 175 points this week alone in Big Ten losses to Iowa and Northwestern.

"I think that, obviously, we need to quit fouling. We gave up about seven, eight fouls in the first 10 minutes, and then they're shooting bonus the rest of the way,'' Jackson-Davis said. Indiana had 21 fouls. "I also think that we're getting straight-line drived a lot, and it's requiring guys to get out of position and help, and it gives up open threes, and they're getting wide-open looks and they're knocking them down.

"We've just got to regroup. We can't count on guys — like starters Xavier Johnson (foot) and Race Thompson (knee) going down — but at the same time, it's the game of basketball, and we've got to have guys step up. We come out really strong against Iowa and then we lay an egg and come out flat here, and you can't have that when you're playing against Big Ten competition. We've got to come out strong, and guys got to be ready to play, and that's the easiest way to put it.''

The final score is deceiving because the Hoosiers were never in a position to win. A half-court heave at the final buzzer by Trey Galloway brought a four-point deficit to one. Northwestern led by as many as 17 points in the first half, getting easy looks and knocking down open looks from three. They hit five of their first seven three-pointers and got ahead quickly 34-17.

With Thompson out with a knee injury, Indiana coach Mike Woodson started Jordan Geronimo at forward. It was a huge failure. He didn't score any points, had three quick fouls and was constantly abused on the defensive end. He played only 10 minutes, with Woodson relying more on freshman Malik Reneau and also going small with Miller Kopp and even Galloway slipping down to the four.

"I just think sometimes we kind of get discombobulated almost, where we're not playing our type of defense,'' Jackson-Davis said. "Like the straight-line drives we got nail help, and sometimes the nail guy is not there, and we're just not going our coverages.

"Coach had a great game plan and I don't think we followed it at all, honestly. We didn't switch when we needed to switch, and it's mental errors. When you don't listen to your coaches, that's going to really hurt you because obviously they were getting whatever shot they wanted.''

The loss spoiled a record day by Jackson-Davis. His 24 rebounds are ninth-most in school history and the most in 52 years. Only Walt Bellamy (33, 30), Steve Downing (26, 25), Dick Van Arsdale (26), Dick Neal (26) and Archie Dees (25) ever had more, and those were all between 1956 and 1971, a very long time ago.

Jackson-Davis, who has been fighting through a back issue that's forced him to miss three games, played all 40 minutes.

"The guy had 18 points and 24 rebounds. I'd say he played a solid game,'' Woodson said. "When you're 17 down and you're searching, you surely don't want your best player sitting over there next to you. I thought he played his butt off, gave us all he could give us, but we fell short.''

After that 34-17 hole, Indiana went on a 15-3 run to get back in the game, cutting the lead to five. It was a seven-point margin at the break (41-34), but then Northwestern went wild to start the second half, and were up by 16 again at 59-43 with 12:15 to go.

The Hoosiers made occasional runs to get into single digits, but Northwestern always responded. Northwestern was still up nine (79-70) with 46 seconds to go. Hood-Schifino scored seven straight points, including a step-back three-pointer with three seconds to go, to get Indiana within three points at 83-80. Indiana was forced to foul and Boo Buie made the second of two free throws to make it a two-possession game. Galloway's 50-footer made it 84-83, but it was too little too late.

Hood-Schifino proved his scoring value for the second straight night. Hood-Schifino's 33 points were the most by an Indiana freshman since Eric Gordon scored 33 against Chattanooga on Nov. 12, 2007 in his first-ever college game. He scored 21 points on Thursday night at Iowa, making him the first freshman since Gordon to score 20 or more in his first two Big Ten games. Hood-Schifino missed Indiana's first two Big Ten games against Rutgers and Nebraska with a back injury. Gordon had 25 and 23 respectively against Iowa and Michigan in January of 2008.

"Yeah, obviously he's one of our best players, and he's going to have the ball in his hand, especially with X out, and we need him to make plays,'' Jackson-Davis said of Hood-Schifino. "That's what he did tonight. He made big shot after big shot, and props to him because he really helped put the team on his back and carry us when we needed scoring. Without him, it could have been a 10- or 15-point game.

Hood-Schifino heaped praise on Jackson-Davis, too.

"He's giving it to us every night,'' Hood-Schifino said of Jackson-Davis. He's one of the best players I've ever played with. For a guy to go out there and play his heart out and for us to still come up short is definitely tough, a tough pill to swallow, but at the end of the day, we've just got to keep working.

"It's a grown man's league, so every single night we're going to play a tough team and it's going to be tough. We've just to go back to the drawing board, just keep working, clean up the little things, and we'll be fine.''

Hood-Schifino was more bothered by the loss and his six turnovers than he was excited about the points. The Hoosiers had 16 turnovers after all, and Northwestern scored 25 points off of them. Indiana, meanwhile, only had six points off of turnovers, and they only forced seven Northwestern miscues all night.

Indiana, Woodson knows, simply needs to be better. He got epic performances out of his two stars, but not much else. It was clearly obvious that they missed Johnson and Thompson, especially on the defensive end.

"It ain't rocket science; you've got to work harder,'' Woodson said. "I think they've outworked us the last two games, even though we got off to a great start at Iowa, and we didn't sustain it because the second half they outworked us.

"I mean, it's something that we've got to continue to work on. Nobody is just going to hand-deliver you wins. We've got to go earn a win. We've got to go to Penn State (on Wednesday night) now and see what we're made of.''

Northwestern was led by Boo Buie, who had 26 points, and Chase Audige, who added 19. Ty Berry and Robbie Beran each had 13 and Northwestern moved to 12-3 and 3-1 in the Big Ten.

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