Boilermakers hand IU 5th-straight loss

It was a theme seen many times throughout the season: trail early on, fight back and come up short in the end.

And similar to games in the past, it happened again for IU on Wednesday.

No. 8 Purdue, who pulled away late in the second half, defeated the Hoosiers, 72-61, at Assembly Hall.

Boilermaker forward JaJuan Johnson finished with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Fellow senior, guard E’Twaun Moore, added 17 points on the night.

After the game, IU coach Tom Crean said Purdue’s duo was a main factor in the loss.

“When it’s all said and done, those two make the game so much easier for everybody else,” Crean said of Johnson and Moore. “They allow people to play over their talent level and that’s what great players do. We knew we had to be really good to stop those two, and we weren’t.”

IU, despite playing in front of a sold-out crowd, could not find its rhythm early on.     

Arguably its top-scoring threat, sophomore guard Jordan Hulls began the game 1-of-6 from the field. Outside of junior guard Verdell Jones, no other Hoosier player had more than two field goals in the first 20 minutes.

But while IU struggled offensively, the Boilermakers did not.

Whether it was a big 3-pointer from Moore and D.J. Byrd or strong inside play from Johnson, the Boilermakers built a lead that would never be relinquished.

Moore’s jumper from the right side with one second remaining gave Purdue a 41-31 advantage at halftime.

Hulls said much of the problems early on stemmed from a lack of transition defense.
“We were right there with them, and then they would come down and hit a three on the break,” Hulls said. “It was pretty rough for us from that aspect. We had some defensive lapses other than that as well.”

The Hoosiers, though, would not go away easy.

At one point down 13 points early in the second half, IU quickly climbed back in the game behind inspired play from Hulls.

He hit a 3-pointer and followed it moments later with a layup while being fouled (followed by a made free throw) to cut the deficit to four points with 12:19 remaining. Freshman guard Victor Oladipo’s layup made it a three-point game with 8:40 left.
Purdue did not let up, and as a result, took its fifth consecutive win in a row.
Johnson, in particular, was the team’s catalyst in the final minutes.

“He played great in the second half,” IU sophomore forward Christian Watford said. “He can step out and shoot the ball, plus he’s a long and athletic guy. He did a great job and his teammates did a great job.”

Jones said the game’s outcome could be traced back to “mental errors” from his squad.

“We practiced certain coverages all week,” he said. “We came out today and some guys were not locked in. It cost us a lot of buckets.”