Indiana lost to Rutgers by a final score of 66-63 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. on Wednesday evening.
The Hoosiers led 32-25 at halftime and were led in the game by Trayce Jackson-Davis with 19 points and 9 rebounds. Xavier Johnson added 13 points and Race Thompson had 12.
Indiana (18-11, 9-10) will wrap-up the regular season at Purdue on Saturday at 2 p.m. Eastern.
See also: Mike Woodson and Trayce Jackson-Davis post-game
THREE KEYS TO THE GAME
1. Another second half collapse. Rutgers outscored IU 21-11 to close the game after IU lead 52-45 with 9:08 remaining. The Hoosiers made just three of their last 15 shots. Parker Stewart did connect on a 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining, but Ron Harper, Jr. matched him on the other end to close the game. The Stewart-Harper, Jr. sequence was preceded by a flagrant-2 foul on Rutgers’ Paul Mulcahy, and that gave IU an extra possession. But it still wasn’t enough. Indiana led by as much as 10 points in the first half and 9 points in the second.
2. Hoosiers can’t connect from three. Despite that Stewart three to tie the game with just ten seconds remaining, Indiana was just 6-of-21 from long range in the game. Starters Stewart and Miller Kopp were brought in to make threes, but they connected on just 3-of-14 and they couldn’t make Rutgers pay for sagging their defense.
3. Jackson-Davis not involved in the second half. Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis had just four second half points on three field goal attempts to go with two rebounds.. Rutgers went to a zone often after the break, and even when they were in man they collapsed aggressively on the IU big man. He had 15 points and seven rebounds in the first half.
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