With roughly three minutes left in Indiana men’s basketball’s 85-71 loss to Penn State on Saturday afternoon, the once-brimming Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall student section became fragmented, with the bulk streaming toward the exits and the rest remaining to offer a smattering of boos.
Indiana head coach Mike Woodson crossed his arms and continually shook his head. After the final buzzer sounded, Indiana’s starters walked off dejected. Despite holding a lead as high as 11 points in the first half, the Hoosiers’ defense collapsed in the second.
Penn State shot a combined 12-of-22 from beyond the arc, continually capitalizing on Indiana’s flimsy defensive rotations, and according to Woodson, lack of effort.
“It was like we were a step slow,” Woodson said postgame. “And it’s kind of disappointing because you play a good game against Iowa and then you come back and basically lay an egg.”
Coming into Saturday, the Nittany Lions were far from one of the more threatening shooting teams in the Big Ten. They ranked just 184th in the country in 3-pointers per game with 7.4 and converted just 30.5% of their tries.
Senior guard Ace Baldwin Jr. was Penn State’s smooth operator, leading the team with 22 points and taking advantage of Indiana freshman guard Gabe Cupps defensively. Baldwin cashed in three of his five 3-point attempts and dished out a game-high eight assists, leading the Nittany Lions to their first road win over Indiana since 2014.
With a little over six minutes remaining in the game, Baldwin slowly dribbled toward his right along the arc. Cupps followed, shifting his feet steadily to match Baldwin’s methodical pace.
In a flash, Baldwin collected the ball and lifted it above his head, releasing a shot that Cupps couldn’t contest in time. The triple fell through the basket, pushing Penn State ahead 71-57 and inducing a swaggering, confident roar from Baldwin.
It wasn’t just Baldwin, though. Junior forward Zach Hicks and sophomore guard Jameel Brown knocked down four 3-pointers apiece. Part of the cause, Indiana senior guard Trey Galloway said, stemmed from miscommunication and failing to stick to Woodson’s gameplan.
“Coach gives us a gameplan, we have to follow it and do it,” Galloway said. “I think the miscommunication, it’s kind of us just being hesitant. But we have to break out of that shell and talk to each other and find ways to get stops.”
The Hoosiers’ defense — maligned for its inability to guard the 3-point line at the outset of the season — took a considerable step forward of late. Against Iowa and Illinois, offenses that rank second and third in the Big Ten in scoring, Indiana allowed just 68 and 70 points, respectively.
Throughout Indiana’s early-season non-conference slate, it was frequently susceptible to barrages from deep. The Hoosiers allowed double-digit 3-point makes in the first three games of the year and surrendered a season-high 17 against Kennesaw State University on Dec. 29.
But in conference play, in part due to the physical and post-centric nature of the Big Ten, Indiana’s perimeter defensive efforts improved. Nebraska made 12 of its 32 long-range attempts on Jan. 3, and Wisconsin drained 10 triples on Jan. 19.
Penn State’s output Saturday matched Nebraska’s mark as the most the Hoosiers have allowed in a Big Ten game this season.
“In the Big Ten conference, we have been guarding the three pretty well,” Woodson said. “I just thought tonight, second half, we were so flat coming out. I mean, something I hadn’t seen.”
With a lineup featuring sophomore center Kel’el Ware, sophomore forward Malik Reneau, freshman forward Mackenzie Mgbako, Galloway and Cupps, Indiana boasted the size to get whatever it wanted down low against a comparatively smaller Penn State side.
But defensively, that size advantage proved counterproductive. The Nittany Lions’ quick pace and ability to spread the floor left the Hoosiers scrambling to try and scrounge stops. Even when Woodson reverted to smaller lineups, Penn State’s explosion persisted.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Nittany Lions scored their third-most points in a game all season without leading scorer Kanye Clary. The sophomore guard ranks sixth in the conference with 18.4 points per game and was sidelined Saturday with a face injury.
Still, Clary’s absence was moot. The Nittany Lions did enough to deliver the Hoosiers their first Quadrant 3 defeat of the season, and one that rendered Indiana’s NCAA Tournament tenuous, at best.
“It’s all of us,” Galloway said. “It’s not just one guy. It was all five guys on the court tonight, and it showed.”
Follow reporters Will Foley (@foles24) and Matt Press (@MattPress23) and columnist Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
