Purdue swats away Hoosiers' bid at 7th win

WEST LAFAYETTE – Even with one side in full-scale rebuilding mode, the IU-Purdue rivalry wasn’t going to make any exceptions Saturday.

Friday night proved just that, when the Hoosiers pulled into West Lafayette and were greeted and serenaded by 150 Boilermaker fans singing the Purdue school song.

The “friendly” treatment didn’t stop there. While No. 19 Purdue is in the middle of a race for the Big Ten regular season championship, and the youthful Hoosiers are still struggling to find their way, the atmosphere Saturday inside Mackey Arena still had the feel of the same heated rivalry.

IU (6-20, 1-13) did everything it could to make it just that, but wasn’t able to overcome an early deficit and the hot shooting of E’Twaun Moore, losing to the Boilermakers, 81-67. 

Purdue’s first-come, first-serve student section was filled about an hour before the game, with students chomping at the bit to heckle their bitter in-state, down-on-their-luck rivals.

One group of students held up oversized letters that spelled out “c-h-e-a-t-e-r-s.” Another sign bared the adoring nickname “Loosiers.”

No one would have held it against the Hoosiers to roll over in West Lafayette.  
But rather than succumb, IU fought back like they have so many times this season. Even when the game had already been decided, the Hoosiers did their best to compete.

“The student section was on us. They wanted Purdue to kill us,” senior forward Kyle Taber said. “We tried to do everything we could to stop that.”

Purdue got off to a quick start when Moore, who finished with a game-high 26 points, scored eight of his team’s first 11 points to give the Boilers an early 11-2 lead. 

But a new-look lineup featuring freshman swingman Malik Story in favor of junior guard Devan Dumes helped the Hoosiers drive into the paint and keep pace with the Boilermakers.

“We’re 6-20. I’m not married to any starting line-up,” IU coach Tom Crean said. “We’ll do whatever we can do to have the best lineup on the floor.”

Crean did just that, playing Story at the point at times and switching up his defenses to confuse the Boilermakers.

After displaying as much frustration as he had all season Thursday night following IU’s 68-51 loss to Wisconsin, Crean said Saturday he was proud of the way his players overcame the quick turnaround.

“It bewilders me sometimes how we can come back so fast from how poorly we played Thursday night to come out this way,” he said. “I guess that’s part of this whole youth thing we’re going through.”

In the 40 hours leading up to the game, Crean said his players not only were locked into their preparation to play Purdue, but moved their own focus back to where it needed to be.

Despite a game plan that enabled the Hoosiers to compete with an older, more talented opponent, Purdue coach Matt Painter said he knows it’s not enough to the coaching staff and players in the other locker room.

Painter, who went through a similar rebuilding process with Purdue three years ago, said he knows it isn’t enough for the Hoosiers to compete and be told, “Hey, you guys played hard.”

“You want to win,” Painter said. “You want to go out and win the game ... I know he’s going down the same path and he’s building for another day, and there will be another day.”

Three years ago, after a similar loss, Painter told his players in the locker room after the game “they are laughing at Purdue right now, but they’re not going to laugh at Purdue in three to four years.”

The Boilermaker fans were certainly laughing at the Hoosiers on Saturday.

Although the students showed favoritism toward the “IU sucks” chant, they eventually switched up their battle cry as the final seconds slowly ticked off the game clock Saturday.

The game was already decided, but the Hoosiers continued to stop the clock by fouling and calling timeouts at every opportunity.

“Just go home,” the students chanted.

But the Hoosiers kept fighting, coming up for air any time the Boilermakers relented and gave them a chance. IU had lost for the 16th time in 17 games, but they left Mackey Arena knowing better days are to come in the IU-Purdue rivalry. 

“To come in here and battle like this, it’s a good thing,” Crean said. “We just got to find a way to get over the hump.”