Indiana basketball lacked ‘fire’ in crushing 14-point loss to Penn State

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In what has already been a disappointing season, Indiana basketball found a new low on Saturday, losing 85-71 at home to Penn State.

Indiana lacked ‘fire as Penn State cruised to victory despite missing their leading scorer Kanye Clary.

“I’m not going to throw my guys under the bus but they just didn’t perform tonight,” Mike Woodson said. “They were just flat as hell.”

After leading for the entirety of the first half, the Hoosiers came out ‘flat’ in the second half and were outscored by 18 points.

“I want more fire from my guys tonight,” Woodson said about their effort. “They didn’t fight the second half. That’s kind of disappointing. We’ve got to go back to work, see if we can work our way back.”

Penn State opened the half on a 22-7 run as Indiana had no answer for Penn State’s barrage of threes. Penn State made 12 of their 22 three-point attempts as Ace Baldwin Jr. and Zach Hicks led the way for the Nittany Lions combining for 41 points and seven made threes. Penn State scored 48 points in the second half which helped them pull away from Indiana basketball.

“I look at the points. We give up 85 points. You ain’t going to beat anyone in the Big Ten doing that,” Woodson said about the team’s defense. “That’s just not us.”

Penn State delivered the first punch of the half, and Indiana had no response as they were unable to get the game within single digits after the opening 22-7 run.

“I just thought tonight the second half we were so flat coming out, something I hadn’t seen,” Woodson said postgame. “I look at the first possession of the second half they got three four cracks at it. we couldn’t come up with the rebounds or loose balls. It’s like we were a step slow.”

Indiana’s lack of effort was clear from the start of the second half, as they turned the ball over three times in the first three minutes of the half, including a ten-second violation, as they lacked any sense of urgency against the Penn State full-court press.

“They were just playing harder than us and it’s hard to get a flow on offense when you can’t get stops,” Galloway said. “Our offense comes when we get stops and going out to run and if we aren’t getting stops we aren’t going to be in a flow on offense and it’s going to spiral and make an impact on offense when we’re bad on defense.”

Indiana scored only 30 points in the second half, and shot 37.5% from the field, as their offense completely disappeared. After snapping a three-game losing streak in a win against Iowa, Indiana is right back at square one as Saturday’s loss has their tournament on life support.

“It’s disappointing because you play a good game against Iowa and come back and lay an egg,” Woodson said.

Indiana had a golden opportunity to build some momentum after Tuesday’s win but they were unable to capitalize despite Penn State missing their star guard. It’s been the story of the season, as Indiana has had chances to build a strong resume for the NCAA tournament, but has butchered every opportunity they’ve had.

“We had a lot of unnecessary fouling and then just a bunch of miscues that’s really just on us that we can’t have this late in the season,” Galloway said.

This is the point of the season, where good teams start to peak and make their push before heading into the postseason, and Indiana basketball still seems like the same team they were back in November. The inability to consistently show up has been a big problem all season and Saturday’s pitiful performance was another example. The team’s lack of growth is extremely concerning as this season continues to slip away.

Indiana will get the chance to bounce back when they travel to Columbus to face Ohio State on February 6th.

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