Veteran efforts fall short as Indiana basketball continues to fail to execute in late game situations

Last Sunday, Indiana basketball fell short to Maryland in the final seconds after miscommunication led to a poorly executed final offensive play.

Fast forward to Friday night against #10 Purdue, Indiana allowed its one point lead with 0:29 remaining to slip, letting Purdue run away with a 6-0 scoring run to close the game, a final score of 81-76.

Deja vu? Not so much. More like mistakes and weak performances adding up throughout the game, ultimately costing Indiana the game in the long run.

While Indiana was able to play a competent forty minutes against Purdue in the loss, there were two key struggles throughout the game from the program.

First, disappointing performances from starters Malik Reneau and Myles Rice.

Reneau hasn’t looked like his normal self these past few games after returning from an injury which sidelined him for a couple weeks.

Reneau started the game off by getting into foul trouble, committing two fouls in less than five minutes of play. These early troubles kept Reneau out of the game until the second half, where he would start the second half on the floor.

Reneau’s return to the floor in the second half didn’t last long, as he fouled out after playing a short period of time. Reneau finished the game with three points on one-of-three shooting from the field, two rebounds, and three turnovers, appearing in just under eight minutes of action.

Rice on the other hand couldn’t find any sort of rhythm on offense, missing his four shot attempts from the field and his one attempt from beyond the arc. His poor shooting performance kept him out of the game for nearly the entire second half, only checking back in when Anthony Leal fouled out at the 1:51 mark.

Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson provided what he didn’t see out of Rice that ultimately kept him out of the game for an extended period.

“He didn’t have it going early and I elected to ride the guys that really finished the game.”

Rice was nearly the difference maker in Indiana’s previous game vs Maryland, connecting on three attempts from three point area in a short span in the second half. This certainly wasn’t the case against Purdue, as the individual performance will go down as arguably Rice’s worst of the season.

In terms of turnovers, Indiana’s starting five committed 13 turnovers, while Trey Galloway and Langdon Hatton turned the ball over a combined seven times off the bench.

Woodson cited the large sum of turnovers as the main factor in the team’s loss.

“The difference in the game was the twenty turnovers that we had,” Woodson said. “I thought that one was huge and on the road you can’t turn it over like they. They made us pay for it, they had 26 points off of our turnovers.”

Indiana’s 20 turnovers goes down as the second highest number of turnovers they’ve committed in a single game this season, falling behind 23 turnovers against Louisville on Nov. 27, 2024.

The heartbreaking rivalry loss pushes Indiana to 10th place in the Big Ten, holding an overall record of 14-8 and a conference record of 5-6.

After now dropping five of the last six conference games, Indiana will look for a much needed bounce back win on the road at #17 Wisconsin on Friday.

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