Turnovers Doom No. 1 Purdue Basketball in 79-74 Loss to No. 21 Indiana
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — No. 1 Purdue basketball dug its own grave on the road during a heated in-state rivalry matchup against No. 21 Indiana, turning the ball over 16 times, which included 11 in the first half alone.
The Boilermakers couldn’t climb their way out of an early double-digit deficit as the Hoosiers mounted 20 points off the mistakes and held off a second-half comeback attempt to win 79-74 on Saturday at Assembly Hall.
Junior center Zach Edey led all scorers with 33 points on 15-of-19 shooting and added 18 rebounds, but finished with five turnovers. Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis posted a team-high 25 points to help hand Purdue its second loss of the season.
“When you have 11 turnovers in the first half and the game before you had seven for the whole game, it just hurts you,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “Our guys were resilient. They battled back, but not good enough.”
The Boilermakers dominated the glass all game, outrebounding the Hoosiers by a 38-22 margin and grabbing 17 on the offensive end of the floor, which led to 12 second-chance points in the matchup.
Edey and sophomore forward Caleb Furst were the only players that could get anything going offensively for Purdue early on, scoring the team’s first 10 points. However, energized by a raucous home crowd, Indiana used a 10-0 run to take a 21-10 lead with 11:57 left before halftime.
During the stretch, the Boilermakers committed six turnovers and didn’t score in the span of more than four minutes. The Hoosiers — who recorded 10 of their 12 fastbreak points in the first half — led by as many as 16 points and took a 50-35 lead into the locker room at the break.
“I think in the first half, the environment kind of shocked some of us,” Edey said. “We played harder in the second half and made the right reads in the second half. I felt like they outworked us in the first half, and that was the story of the game.”
After having a chance to regroup and move on from the first half of play, Edey came back onto the court with palpable energy, scoring four of the first five baskets for Purdue to cut its deficit to single digits.
He posted 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting after halftime to fuel the offense for the Boilermakers, allowing for shots to open up on the perimeter. The team hit four 3-pointers in the second half and finished 6-of-18 from deep for the game.
“We were going to establish Zach, we were going to go to him,” Painter said. “We didn’t think they had an answer for him, and we wanted to go right to him. They were just fouling him and grabbing him and holding him.”
David Jenkins Jr. and Brandon Newman would combine to hit three straight from beyond the arc for the Boilermakers, which cut the deficit to four points with 9:35 left to play. The Hoosiers never led by more than six the rest of the way.
But Indiana’s Jalen Hood-Schifino took charge trying to stave off the furious Purdue comeback, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the final period. He went 6-of-12 from the field in the second half as Jackson-Davis’ scoring output slowed.
The Boilermakers held Jackson-Davis to seven points in the second half, but he went on to finish the game with five blocks alongside his scoring total.
Purdue brought the game to within one point as freshman Braden Smith scored on a fastbreak layup, but the team had two turnovers in the final three minutes and never retook the lead. They also finished just 10-of-17 from the free-throw line.
“Just the turnovers, I think that’s what screwed us the most,” Smith said. “They had more possession than we did. I think at the end of the day, if we take care of the ball and get it to where it needs to be, we’ll be really successful.”
With the loss, Purdue falls to 22-2 on the season and 11-2 in Big Ten play. The Boilermakers will get a rematch with the Hoosiers on Feb. 25 at Mackey Arena. Up next, the team will prepare to play Iowa at home at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 9.
“I’m new to the rivalry, but obviously you could tell how intense it was,” Jenkins said. “They came out ready to go, and I don’t think we came out as ready as they did. We’re going to learn from this at the end of the day. No matter what, we’re going to be ready for them when they come to Mackey.”
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.