On Wednesday night, Indiana welcomed Penn State into Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for an evening clash in the Big Ten, needing a victory to further its NCAA tournament hopes.
The Hoosiers used yet another second half surge to defeat the Nittany Lions 83-78, improving to 17-11 overall and 8-9 in Big Ten play on the season.
Here's how it happened.
INDIANA SLEEP WALKS THROUGH THEÂ FIRST HALF
There were worries pregame that Indiana was going to be unable to replicate its effort from the second half of Sunday's victory against Purdue.
It was announced pregame that junior forward Malik Reneau would not be available to play due to an illness, leaving the Hoosiers without their leading scorer from Sunday.
Indiana was a step behind defensively the entire half, but had offensive spurts them kept them in the game early. However, when Indiana would go on a run, Penn State went on a run of its own, earning a two-point advantage into the halftime break.
Indiana shot 60 percent from the field in the first half, including an impressive 4-of-7 from deep, but couldn't buy a stop on the defensive end, allowing Penn State to shoot 64 percent from the field and 4-of-8 from downtown.
Eight of the nine Indiana players that saw game action scored as Oumar Ballo led the way with 11-first half points on 5-of-7 shooting.
BALLO STRONG IN RENEAU'S ABSENCE
Oumar Ballo was Indiana's most consistent player of the first half with his 11-point performance in the game's opening 20 minutes.
Ballo struggled for a large chunk of the second half, missing five of his first six shots of the half.
Though it took sometime to get going in the second half, Ballo found his groove after converting on a three-point play at the under-eight timeout of the half.
The Arizona transfer wound up finishing with a team high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including an above average 4-of-6 from the charity stripe. Ballo added a dozen rebounds and 5 assists for the Hoosiers.
Ballo played 36 minutes in the wake of Reneau's sudden absence from the lineup, providing Indiana with effort and intensity the entire night.
GALLOWAY PUTS INDIANA AHEAD FOR GOOD
Trey Galloway was struggling taking care of the ball the vast majority of Wednesday night's game, turning the ball over four times in the first half. However, his impact in the final minutes of the game is what led Indiana to a five-point victory against Penn State.
Trailing by two with less than six minutes left on the clock, Galloway hit a right-wing triple to give Indiana a one-point lead.
Just seconds later, Myles Rice was in transition and found a streaking Galloway on the left wing who buried another three to give Indiana a four-point advantage, turning Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall into a madhouse at the timeout.
Galloway hit all four of his attempts from deep, finishing with 16 points and 7 assists.
As a team, Indiana 6-of-8 from three in the second half, finishing an impressive 10-of-15 from behind the arc.
With his 16 points, the Culver, Indiana, native draws closer to the 1,000-point benchmark, sitting just 50 points away from the milestone achievement.
FINAL STATS
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