WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It took just one shot for freshman guard Jalen Hood-Schifino to recognize he had his A-game tonight.
He hit his first jumper just under seven minutes into the game, but Hood-Schifino said afterward he knew he had his shot.
The freshman’s 35 points, a new career high, led No. 17 Indiana men’s basketball to a 79-71 victory over No. 5 Purdue on Saturday.
“I live for those moments. I love playing in big games,” Hood-Schifino said after the game. “Obviously, going into Purdue was gonna be a tough one. We beat them before, so we knew we had to bring our A-game.”
Once that first shot fell, Hood-Schifino kept shooting. He kept making them, too, producing 23 points in the first half before cooling down just slightly after the break, tacking on another 12.
“He’s grown a lot, but there’s still holes,” head coach Mike Woodson said. “As he continues to mature as a player, he is going to actually figure all of it out. There’s a lot of things from a point guard that you have to read, and he’s had his moments, but tonight he was brilliant.”
When the rest of Indiana’s pieces weren’t falling into place, Hood-Schifino did everything he could to fight off Purdue’s runs. The Hoosiers had just three players score in the first half, none of which were senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis, but the halftime deficit was just four.
After the break, as the rest of Indiana’s offense began to roll, Hood-Schifino was comfortable facilitating. He shot just nine times compared to 15 in the first half. The rest of the team benefited from his work, taking the lead for the first time with 17:45 remaining and never looking back.
“We feed off him,” Jackson-Davis said. “I told him before the game even started, ‘You're gonna get your opportunities.’”
Woodson tried to draw up plays for Jackson-Davis, who didn’t score for over 28 minutes, but Jackson-Davis told his coach to ride the hot hand in Hood-Schifino.
Hood-Schifino's confidence has been largely unflappable all season. He went through a streak of games earlier this season with two or fewer made shots but bounced back for 16 points against Purdue at Assembly Hall on Feb. 4. Despite the most hostile environment Indiana’s faced all season, Hood-Schifino wasn’t fazed.
"I don’t know if we see him again,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. “Very few people roll through here and do that, if anybody, at 19 years old.”
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Late in the second half, with Mackey Arena getting loud as the Boilermakers slowly worked down the deficit, Hood-Schifino came out of an Indiana timeout to nail back-to-back jumpers.
Hood-Schifino's decision making was strong all night, and he made the plays Indiana needed him to make. He turned the ball over three times, a fewer number than three of his last four games, and Indiana’s ability to keep control of the ball helped lead to its 51% shooting night.
Hood-Schifino was also Indiana’s facilitator through pick-and-rolls, which Woodson said Indiana ran a lot of on Saturday.
Indiana moved the ball to its shooters, players like senior forward Miller Kopp and junior guard Trey Galloway, thanks to Hood-Schifino's control at the point guard position.
“It was an unbelievable display of basketball for him,” Woodson said. “He played 40 minutes, got the ball where its gotta go offensively and had to defend. He put the ball in the hole and had a tremendous game for us. We needed it.”
With a minute left and Purdue fans leaving for the exits in droves, Hood-Schifino stepped to the free throw line to ice the game. He nailed both attempts, breaking his previous high of 33 and falling just 1 point shy of Indiana’s freshman scoring record, set by Jay Edwards on March 10, 1988.
It was Woodson’s first career win at Mackey Arena as a player or a coach. But Hood-Schifino, in just one year, is already undefeated in West Lafayette.
“When it comes to moments like this, I’m definitely built for it,” Hood-Schifino said.
