The Indiana Hoosiers (12-11, 7-9 B1G) traveled to Piscataway, New Jersey to face off with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (13-9, 9-9 B1G) in what felt like a must win for Indiana. The Hoosiers looked for revenge after Rutgers defeated Indiana in their last matchup.
Head coach ArchieMiller yet again began the game with the usual starting five of AlDurham, RaceThompson, RobPhinisee, ArmaanFranklin, and TrayceJackson-Davis.
The Hoosiers got off to a scorching start as senior Al Durham began 4-4 from behind the arc and sophomore standout Trayce Jackson-Davis had two monster dunks.
Indiana led at the first media timeout 15-4.
As the first half went on, the Scarlet Knights began to heat up.
As a team Rutgers started 0-7 from long distance but then hit their next four shots from three-point land. Two of which came from senior guard GeoBaker.
The first ten minutes were all Indiana…the last ten were all Rutgers.
With just over a minute left, Baker hit his fourth three of the half to give Rutgers their first lead, 30-29. That came after an IU lead that was as high as 15.
At half the Hoosiers were lead by Durham with 14 points while Rutgers was led by Baker who had 12 points. The Scarlet Knights ended the half on a 27-8 scoring run to take a 35-31 lead at halftime.
Halftime did not slow Rutgers down as they were able to stretch their lead to eight point just over a minute in to the second half with yet another Ron Harper Jr. three.
Trayce Jackson-Davis did his best to bring IU back into the game. He yet again threw down a monster dunk. This time, an and-one that lead to a media timeout.
IU trailed 45-37 with 15:54 remaining.
Rutgers had an answer for every run Indiana began, hitting gut-wrenching three after gut-wrenching three. Indiana trimmed the lead to five points only for it to be grown back to 12 with back-to-back threes by Geo Baker.
Two point-blank layups missed by KhristianLander followed up by two monster dunks stretched the lead to 16 with just over 7:30 left.
In a half were IU never lead, the bigger story was the absence of Armaan Franklin. Franklin never played in the second half for unknown reasons. TreyGalloway played in his place for the Hoosiers.
Indiana dropped their second game in a row as Rutgers defeated the Cream and Crimson on their senior night, 74-63. The Scarlet Knights swept the season series from the Hoosiers, and they’ve now taken five of the last six games against IU.
Indiana was led Jackson-Davis with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Rutgers was lead by Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr. who both scored 20 points.
Up next for the Hoosiers (12-11, 7-9 B1G) is a matchup, in which they are slated as a heavy underdog, as they welcome the Michigan Wolverines (16-1, 11-1 B1G) to Assembly Hall on Saturday, Feb. 27th at noon EST.