At the Buzzer: Penn State 83, Indiana 74

  • 02/24/2024 2:23 pm in

Quick thoughts on an 83-74 loss at Penn State:

How it happened

Indiana went toe-to-toe with Penn State for most of the first half Saturday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center. Despite battling foul trouble and not making a 3-pointer, the Hoosiers were tied with the Nittany Lions at 32 with 2:55 left in the first half after an Anthony Walker bucket. But the Hoosiers had a lapse in the final 2:55 and Penn State took full advantage with an 8-1 run to go into the locker room leading 40-33. Fouls were a major problem for Indiana in the first half. The Hoosiers committed 11 of them and Penn State cashed in with an 11-for-14 performance from the stripe. Ace Baldwin, who scored 22 points in the first matchup in Bloomington, had 15 points and four assists for the Nittany Lions and didn’t come off the floor. The duo of Kel’el Ware (11 points) and Malik Reneau (10 points) was solid for IU, but the Hoosiers were outscored by 15 points from long distance.

The Nittany Lions stretched the lead to 11 at 50-39 on a Zach Hicks 3-pointer with 15:25 to play, but Indiana had an answer. The Hoosiers cut the lead to three at 52-49 on a Trey Galloway bucket with 12:08 left. Penn State, however, stretched the lead back to seven on a Puff Johnson putback after two offense rebounds with 9:04 left. And out of an IU timeout, the Nittany Lions pushed the cushion back to nine at 63-54 on a Nick Kern layup with 8:27 left. The Hoosiers got back within seven at 70-63 on a 3-point play by Kel’el Ware, who sat for most of the second half with four fouls, with 4:28 remaining.  Ware drew IU within five at 2:58 on a tough runner in the paint. But that was as close as the Hoosiers would get as Penn State completed the season sweep (home and away) for the first time since the 2008-09 season. With the loss, IU fell to 14-13 and 6-10 in Big Ten play.

Standout performer

Reneau put together a terrific performance, finishing with 27 points in 35 minutes. He was 9-for-14 from the field and 9-for-12 from the free throw line.

Statistics that stand out

It was another dreadful shooting performance for the Hoosiers, who shot 2-for-15 (13.3 percent) on 3s and 14-for-25 (56 percent) from the free throw line. The Hoosiers were also poor defensively, surrendering 83 points and 1.19 points per possession to the Nittany Lions.

Final IU individual statistics

Final tempo-free statistics

Assembly Call postgame show

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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