No. 25 Hoosiers Fall on the Road at Purdue

Saturday, January 19

West Lafayette, IN

2:00 PM

Indiana University

12-5

Purdue

11-6

Indiana

Purdue

1/19/2019 4:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes VIDEO: Highlights VIDEO: Morgan Highlights VIDEO: Justin Smith Highlights Photo Gallery

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The streak continues.

No, this is not a good Indiana thing.

The Hoosiers lost their offense at Mackey Arena Saturday afternoon and then the game. Their 70-55 defeat to Purdue was their fourth straight overall, and fourth straight to their rival.

"We're trying to stay with it," coach Archie Miller told Voice of the Hoosiers Don Fischer during his post-game radio show. "We're trying to battle and be competitive. We played more guys. We're just not good enough in the little things offensively. We have to fix some of those problems."

The time to problem solve is brief. IU (12-6 overall, 3-4 in the Big Ten) heads to Northwestern (11-7) on Tuesday night, then hosts No. 2 Michigan (17-1) on Friday night.

The Hoosiers beat Northwestern 66-66 in early December at Assembly Hall. They lost at Michigan 74-63 two weeks ago.

"There's no time to sulk," Miller told Fischer. "We have to start preparing for a (Northwestern) team that we've already had a hard-fought game with. Going to their place won't be easy."

Nothing was easy at sold-out Mackey Arena, especially at the free-throw line. IU was just 7-for-18.

"The foul line really killed us," Miller told Fischer. "It killed us early in the game. It continued at the end of the half. It hurt us in the second half."

Guards Rob Phinisee and Aljami Durham did their free-throw-shooting part. They were a combined 6-for-7 from the line.

The rest of the Hoosiers were 1-for-11.

"It was everybody," Miller told Fischer. "It wasn't just one guy.

"Al got going a little bit in the second half, but we couldn't get our free throws to go down."

IU has struggled from the line for much of the season, but had made 27 of its last 35 attempts from the line until Saturday.

"You go 16-for-16 (on free throws) at Maryland," Miller told Fischer. "We've been shooting them better. Today wasn't our day. We didn't play at our best."

Forward Justin Smith came up big. So did Durham and, as usual, do-it-all forward Juwan Morgan.

It wasn't enough.

Smith played 38 minutes and totaled 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting. He added six rebounds.

Morgan had 14 points, six rebounds and five assists. Durham finished with eight points, four rebounds and four assists.

"Justin was good," Miller told Fischer. "He battled hard defensively. He got 15 and 6, and they were all effort related. Without question he did a nice job.

"Juwan was everywhere. He played a ton of minutes. Purdue made things very difficult for him just to catch the ball in the paint. There were a lot of bodies in there. It's not like there was a lot of room to operate.

"I thought he did his part. He has to come up a little better at the foul line, which he'll do in the next game. We need him to stay with it. He's a big part with his leadership. He impacts the game in a big way."

Leading scorer Romeo Langford never found his rhythm. He finished with four points, basically 15 below his average. He was 0-for-3 from three-point line and 0-for-4 on free throws. Because of early foul trouble, he didn't score until a minute into the second half.

"Romeo had probably the worst game of his young college career," Miller told Fischer. "You'll eventually go through some of these ups and downs."

IU's game plan centered on mental toughness and physical defense, attributes that boosted it into the top 25, but lacking during its losing streak.

The Hoosiers also needed their knack for better road three-point shooting to continue. It didn't. They went 4-for-20 from beyond the arc.

Phinisee, a Lafayette native, came back to his home town as a starter after working his way back from a concussion. His return was not appreciated by a loud Mackey Arena crowd that wasn't afraid to boo him.

Still, he finished with eight points and three rebounds.

"Give Purdue credit," Miller said. "They made things very hard on us. We knew that would be the case. They are a very good offensive team that really executes their stuff.

"For us, the defense was pretty good. We did a good job of rebounding. We challenged a lot of tough threes and were able to hang in the game."

For a while, at least.

Purdue (12-6, 5-2) was led by Carson Edwards' 20 points, five below his average.

"Carsen Edwards is a terrific player," Miller told Fischer. "He got going a little bit. (Guard Ryan) Cline hit a couple of threes. When they make threes, they're a different team."

IU fell into a quick 11-2 hole, a problem magnified by Langford leaving the game after picking up two fouls in the first four minutes.

Someone had to step up.

Enter Smith.

He scored, rebounded and defended.

IU closed the gap.

Enter Phinisee.

He scored six straight points to give IU its first lead, at 18-17.

IU led 24-21 before Purdue ended the half on a 12-2 run to go ahead 33-26.

Eight turnovers and 1-for-5 free throw shooting held the Hoosiers back.

Langford's first basket couldn't prevent the Hoosiers from falling behind by 13 points three minutes into the second half.

Purdue soon pushed ahead by 17.

IU never recovered.

"Our guys in the last eight to 10 minutes continued to battle and dig," Miller told Fischer. "At the end of the day, we felt we could be better as we keep moving forward, but it's deflating when you can't hit free throws. The foul line was really destructive to the margin. Our shooting wasn't very good. We have to get back to work."