Hoosiers Hang on to Beat No. 9 Penn State
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — More often than not this season when Indiana blows the lead, heads start to droop and losses usually follow.
Against No. 9 Penn State on Sunday, the Hoosiers let a 19-point lead slip away and looked to be re-telling the same script. Instead, Indiana went on a second-half run of its own and stunned the Nittany Lions, 68-60.
"We got off to great start and should have had a bigger lead going into halftime, but we made some dumb errors," Indiana coach Archie Miller said of the 19-point lead that was only 13 at the break and was nearly all gone just three minutes into the second half. "We took a huge punch in the second half and times this year that punch has hurt us a lot more.''
Penn State (20-7, 10-6 in the Big Ten) scored the last six points of the first half and the first 12 of the second to cut Indiana's lead to 37-36. Penn State stretched its lead to 48-42 with 12:17 remaining and looked primed to blow out the Hoosiers in the second half, much like it did in a 64-49 win in State College on Jan. 29.
But Indiana, now 5-1 this season against ranked teams at Assembly Hall, had other ideas. Jerome Hunter hit a huge three-pointer to stop the skid and then Race Thompson scored twice. Justin Smith scored on a layup, Rob Phinisee made two free throws and Trayce Jackson-Davis dunked to give Indiana a 55-48 lead. It was a critical — and stunning — 13-0 run for the Hoosiers, who haven't answered adversity like that all year.
Penn State got no closer than three points for the remainder of the game, and Indiana did a good job of making foul shots down the stretch, hitting five of its final six free-throw attempts
"At the end of the game, we made almost every single hard hustle play," Miller said. "We were able to make some plays when it was tough. We found a way to finish. For the most part, we played smart. We fought and finished the last two games well defensively."
Indiana has won three of its last four games after an ugly loss to Purdue two weeks ago, and is now right back in the NCAA tournament picture. The Hoosiers are 18-9 and 8-8 in the Big Ten.
They didn't panic Sunday, and they haven't panicked over the past two weeks.
"We lose a couple in a row and everyone wants to count us out and freak out," said Indiana forward Justin Smith, who had 8 points and 9 rebounds and made a lot of key defensive stops down the stretch. "We never waver. This is a tough league. All the teams are good pretty much. They are going to get you a couple times. We've responded well and we're going to work on the momentum going forward."
Al Durham led Indiana with 14 points. Jackson-Davis had 13 points and 10 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the year. Senior guard Devonte Green had 10 points off the bench, hitting three quick three-pointers early when the Hoosiers were making their big run.
Smith was a huge factor down the stretch for the Hoosiers, stepping up when they needed it the most.
"He really raised his level of play the last eight minutes of the game,'' Miller said of the oft-maligned junior forward. "He had a steal underneath, out of bounds. That was huge. He had six defensive rebounds, which I'm not sure what he had at half, but I would say the majority of his defensive rebounding came in the second half.
"That's when Justin's good. When Justin's good, you can see his effort level, and he's making plays that others can't make, whether he just goes and gets a rebound nobody else can get, which we needed. He gets a steal, a deflection because he's in the right position.''
Miller said Smith helped offensively, too.
"I thought offensively, he had the ball around the basket a few times today and probably could have got maybe a couple more free throws because I thought he got hit on a couple. But he didn't get it. He played through it, which is good.
"Sometimes Justin wants the game to go a certain way and it doesn't. And it takes him a minute. But when the energy was up and we needed the plays to be made, I thought last eight minutes he stepped up, did a great job.''
Next up is Purdue on Thursday night in West Lafayette.
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