This game featured three IU big men with at least four fouls. Two others had three.
Junior forward Collin Hartman played the last few minutes with a bandage covering a gash on his chin. The wound would require stitches after the game.
But the Hoosiers, even with foul trouble and injuries, didn’t back down Saturday night. Against a Purdue team featuring two 7-footers and another 6-foot-9 player, IU attacked the paint and won 77-73 against Purdue to gain sole possession of first place in the Big Ten.
“All of our inside guys were up to the task, and it’s no easy task to go to battle with the three centers they have,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “They responded, and they carried their own on the offensive end as well.”
Junior forward Troy Williams led the way with 19 points. Ferrell was close behind with 18 of his own. But it was the big men who led the way in the second half, when Ferrell and Williams combined for only nine points.
Senior forward Max Bielfeldt scored 10 points. Freshman center Thomas Bryant scored 10 as well, and freshman forward OG Anunoby contributed nine.
Purdue started the game going right at IU’s perceived weakness. AJ Hammons touched the ball on the first five possessions of the game, and he scored three times. But Hammons could only play six minutes in the first half because of his own foul trouble.
This meant it was primarily Isaac Haas the Hoosiers were forced to defend. For a while, they couldn’t. He was able to shoot over or work through whatever IU player was trying to guard him.
“Nobody has guys right now that can just guard those guys one-on-one,” Crean said. “I haven’t seen it.”
So IU stopped trying to defend one-on-one. It started sending another player at Haas as soon as he caught the ball. Haas couldn’t score after that, and Purdue’s guards didn’t hit outside jump shots consistently.
Offensively, IU tried spending as much time as possible in the paint despite Purdue’s size advantage.
Once the ball was in the paint, whether it was by a guard driving or a player posting up, scoring opportunities opened up.
“We did a great job, I think, sharing the ball,” Ferrell said. “We didn’t force anything I feel like. We took the open shots, got it inside and our big guys were phenomenal down there trying to work against those big guys.”
In a way, IU switched Purdue’s game plan. The Boilermaker guards passed the ball into the post to their big men. The Hoosier guards got into the paint before passing it to the perimeter.
IU’s forwards combined to shoot 7-of-14 from behind the arc.
“I think Max did an unbelievable job in the second half screening and popping basically,” Ferrell said. “They couldn’t guard all of us at once so they had to give something up, and I felt like Max did a great job getting his feet set, getting his hands set and knocking down those open jumpers.”
Bielfeldt and Bryant spent the majority of the second half trying to contain Hammons. He still scored, but the baskets were infrequent. He also was only able to grab one rebound. Purdue came in as the best offensive rebounding team in the Big Ten and only had four Saturday.
“We just did our best out there guarding their big men,” Bryant said. “Hammond and Haas are two big guys who are very talented down there in the post. I just tried to do everything I could, and so did Max.”
