Indiana guts out 61-59 win against Penn State to advance to Big Ten tournament quarterfinals
Indiana wants revenge. Plain and simple. The Hoosiers want to win. They want to prove themselves, they want to compete and they don’t want their season to end.
They’ll do whatever it takes to keep going. It doesn’t matter if they play pretty basketball or not. A win is a win.
So, while Indiana’s 61-59 win over Penn State Thursday night was far from good basketball, the only thing that mattered at the end was that they walked off the court knowing they would be back the next day.
“I thought our guys fought from the very beginning until the end,” Mike Woodson said postgame. “It was just one of those types of games — an ugly game — but we made the plays we needed to make coming down the home stretch.”
That’s the mark of a determined team: keep fighting, make the plays when you need to and don’t stop until the buzzer sounds. Multiple Hoosiers embodied that mentality throughout the night, but one stands out. He’s the one who ensured the victory, coming off the bench to have one of his career’s most important and memorable shots.
Who else could it be but Anthony Leal?
With five seconds left in the game, Leal hung back in the corner, watching as Xavier Johnson fed the ball to Malik Reneau, who drove to the basket with one thing on his mind: scoring. Leal had the same thing on his mind, so the senior decided to run over and get in position for the rebound.
“The odds of a shot going in aren’t always high, but the odds of losing on a tip-in or a rebound is something that we talk about a lot,” Leal said. “I knew that if he did happen to miss the shot, to go in there and try to make something happen was a possibility.”
It was a possibility, and then it was reality. Leal got the rebound and the putback, and then he got mobbed by his teammates just a few seconds later. Thanks to him, the Hoosiers extended their win streak to five games and were moving on to the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.
“Coming from the NBA, we call that a true pro,” Woodson said. “From a coaching standpoint, we feel comfortable knowing, if we throw him in there, he’s not going to embarrass us, himself or our team.”
Leal did anything but. He had his moments throughout the game, finishing the night with eight points highlighted by that putback and a nothing-but-net 3-pointer. He dove for loose balls, was pesky on defense and added four rebounds and one steal to his stat line.
“I couldn’t be more proud of him,” Woodson said.
Woodson’s pride in Leal was evident from the small smile that crossed the head coach’s face when he talked about his senior guard. It was also clear that that pride wasn’t reserved just for Leal — it was for the whole team.
Despite being the higher seed in Thursday night’s game, the Hoosiers went in largely regarded as the underdog. They had lost badly to Penn State in both regular season matchups and would be playing without Trey Galloway due to injury. The Nittany Lions were known for their 3-point shooting and the Hoosiers were known for their inconsistent perimeter play.
But Indiana used that underdog mentality and the desire for revenge to its advantage. Indiana’s defense limited Penn State’s offense in major ways, holding the Nittany Lions to 7-of-33 shooting in the first half and 7-for-27 from the perimeter overall. The defense kept the Hoosiers afloat as they, too, struggled to see shots fall.
Thursday night was a battle between two teams who desperately wanted and needed to win, fighting to see who could play a better version of bad basketball. Indiana won that competition, as Reneau and Kel’el Ware worked with each other down the stretch to take over the interior. The two combined for 29 of Indiana’s 61 points and 22 of Indiana’s 41 rebounds and with Galloway out, Xavier Johnson and Gabe Cupps stepped up to shoulder ball-handling duties. Everyone did something good. And in a game where many things aren’t going very well, anything good can be a game-changer, no matter how small.
“Even with one guy out, we’ve always got to come together as a team,” Ware said. “Just play together and lock in on defense, and just be able to execute the offense well to be able to come out with a W.”
Indiana did just that, and Leal was the one who got to move the Indiana sticker one spot further on the bracket. Before he did so, though, he pretended to move it all the way into the championship spot on the board. It was a joke, but it was also a sign of what Indiana saw itself accomplishing.
The Hoosiers have no intention of slowing down. They’re going to play teams who beat them in the past, and they don’t want it to happen again.
“We’ve got the mentality that every matchup we’ve got this tournament is basically a revenge game for us,” Leal said on Big Ten Network postgame.
Revenge is a powerful motivator. If Thursday night is any indication, Indiana may just know how to use it to its advantage.
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
Filed to: Penn State Nittany Lions