‘Everybody’s heated’: Following multiple late-game flops, it’s now or never time for a ‘frustrated’ Indiana basketball team

It’s been a season full of inconsistencies but one of the few unfortunate consistencies for Indiana basketball has been the inability to close out games with costly mistakes continuing to add up. Friday’s loss to Purdue was just another example of core issue — not talent, just execution.

Indiana went toe-to-toe with one of the nation’s most efficient teams on their home floor for nearly 40 minutes. Indiana’s players have been vocal about one of the core issues of this team’s lack of success this season and it’s revolved around their inability to take punches, watch teams go on runs and then respond. They did on Friday. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as the now more pressing issue and core struggle around this era of Indiana basketball under Mike Woodson rears its ugly head even more.

“I mean, I think the good thing is we’re in these games, but we got to finish,” IU guard Trey Galloway said after the 81-76 loss. “I think just making the right plays down the stretch is the difference.”

Indiana has now lost three games in a row and five of the last six games as the toughest stretch of the season began on Friday. But, unlike the beginning of the year, Indiana has been in the lead in each of the last three second halves and even leading with under a minute in the last two losses.

IU was up five points with 2:19 left and four points with 38 seconds left at home against Maryland until late game blunders resulted in a loss. Then Indiana was up one point with 29 seconds left against Purdue before back-to-back possessions of failed execution caused IU to fumble a terrific opportunity for a resume win.

Friday’s loss was the latest blemish for Indiana that now has forced the Hoosiers into a major hole — one that won’t be easy to climb out of. Purdue started a stretch of six straight games against Quad 1 opponents, including four ranked teams and three games on the road.

“Again, it’s just about making plays down the stretch and securing the win. We didn’t do it in the Maryland game, and tonight we had our chances,” Woodson said. “I mean, we couldn’t get the key stops. (Trey) Kaufman hits a 15-foot hook shot that was huge for them and then we didn’t capitalize coming back the other way.”

Indiana is now 14-8 overall and 5-6 in Big Ten play — 11th in the league.

The frustration is starting to boil over and is clearly seen on the sidelines — notably against Purdue when Oumar Ballo was visibly seen getting in the face of teammate Myles Rice and even being held back by some teammates to cool him off. This was following one of the end-of-game possessions where Indiana’s lack of execution as clear.

“Well again, everybody’s heated in the heat of the moment, and he didn’t think it was a good play and he voiced his opinion on it, which is okay,” Woodson said of the exchange in the huddle between Ballo and Rice. “You just hope that you can learn from it and build on it and move on.”

With so many opportunities still ahead for Indiana, these ‘heated’ moments need to be used as a learning moment. The unfortunate part is, there are only so many chances left and the room for error is as close to zero as it can get.

“It’s very frustrating, because we’re right there,” Galloway continued. “We got to keep fighting. There’s a lot of games left. But to know that we’re right there and that close to being able to find ways to win those close games like this is definitely frustrating for all of us. We want to win in the worst way possible. But the good thing is we have another great opportunity against Wisconsin, so we just got to look forward to that and learn from this. But it’s always challenging to lose games like this.”

SEE ALSO: ‘Couldn’t get his attention’: Mike Woodson discusses ‘heated’ late-game situation against Purdue that resulted in another disappointing loss for Indiana basketball

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