Indiana gave the ball away to Penn State 18 times Wednesday, just one shy of a season-high. The Hoosiers' offense was unable to find a rhythm shooting the ball or passing it, resulting in a 64-49 loss.
With an opportunity to rebound after a loss at home, Indiana mishandled the ball far too often on the road against No. 24 Penn State. The Hoosiers nearly matched a season-high with 18 turnovers in a 64-49 loss Wednesday night, their lowest scoring total of the season.
The team was just three days removed from its lowest turnover count on the year in a hard-fought game against Maryland. Before the first half ended, Indiana matched Sunday’s total at six turnovers.
Despite the mistakes, the two teams resigned to their respective locker rooms on equal footing — tied at 28 apiece — when the first-half buzzer rang. Freshman forward Trayce Jackson-Davis led the way with a team-high 10 points and six rebounds.
In the second half, however, those mistakes piled on as the Hoosiers began trying to compensate for missed shot attempts. They opened up the period shooting 1-for-9 from the field and committed five turnovers in eight minutes of play.
“Offensively we were bad,” Indiana head coach Archie Miller said after the game. “We talked to the team after the game, there wasn’t much to talk about other than in the second half, we just played terrible.”
Poor shooting from the Nittany Lions and an uncharacteristic fadeaway 3-pointer from junior forward Justin Smith kept the Hoosiers’ deficit within single digits as Penn State led 41-35 with 12:33 left in the contest.
Aside from Smith and Jackson-Davis, no other Indiana scorer put up double-digit points. The team’s backcourt combined to shoot 3 of 26 from the floor, including 1 of 8 from beyond the arc. Junior Al Durham led all guards with five points.
While Jackson-Davis had a team-high 14 points, he only scored four in the second half and secured just one rebound. Smith finished the game with 13 points and tied his freshman teammate with seven rebounds.
“We had a real hard time functioning, getting anything generated offensively,” Miller said.
Smith said the team let the pressure of Penn State’s defense get the best of them.
Against the Hoosiers’ transition offense, the Nittany Lions allowed only seven fastbreak points and nine assists. Penn State rushed Indiana in half-court scenarios and took advantage of 15 steals in the game, leading 21 points off turnovers.
“It was just mental mistakes really,” Jackson-Davis said. “Just overthrowing passes or just wrong reads.”
Six Hoosiers committed at least two turnovers while only two players scored more than six points. Indiana forwards combined for 39 points.
Sophomore point guard Rob Phinisee started the game and played 24 minutes. He failed to score a single basket and had two shots at the rim that fell into the waiting arms of Penn State defenders.
Indiana is now 15-6 overall (5-5 in the Big Ten) and has won just one game on the road. The team will walk into Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday in search of a regular-season sweep of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
“We’re going to be fine,” Smith said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re going to bounce back. They caught us on an off day. I think defensively we played well in the first half, but we couldn’t take care of the ball. We’ll probably have a different outcome on Saturday.”
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