Rice, Reneau Send Hoosiers to Win

By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports

     The Indiana Hoosiers beat the #11 Excel H Sports Ranked Purdue Boilermakers 73-58 on Sunday afternoon in a sold-out Simon Skjdot Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are 16-11 overall and 7-9 in the Big Ten and host Penn State on Wednesday Night at 8:30 PM. Indiana needed to win this one to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive. After Penn State the Hoosiers travel to Washington and Oregon before closing out the regular season hosting Ohio State.

     Purdue drops to 19-9 overall and 11-6 in the Big Ten as the Boilermakers have lost four in a row and return home to West Lafayette to face UCLA and Rutgers and close out the regular season at Illinois. Purdue is fighting for a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament and now trail Wisconsin and Maryland by a half game as both those teams have four games left in the regular season.

    Indiana went to a small lineup with Luke Goode, Anthony Leal, Trey Galloway, Malik Reneau and Myles Rice to start the game bringing Mackenzie Mgbako and Oumar Ballo off the bench.

   Reneau and Galloway led the Hoosiers with 15 points each, Rice and Ballo had 12 points each, Luke Goode had 11 points and Anthony Leal scored 8 points. Kannan Carlyle and Mackenize Mgbako did not score as Mike Woodson played the four of the starting five over 30 minutes with Reneau playing 24 minutes and Ballo 22 minutes off the bench. Mgbako played 9 minutes and Carlyle played 7 minutes.

   Rice’s defense on Purdue’s Braden Smith was crucial as he limited his output

and stymied any Boiler comeback.

   The Hoosiers finished the game shooting 52% from the field on 28-52, 4-19 from three-point range 21% and 13-20 from the free throw line for 65%. The Hoosiers pulled down 27 rebounds, dished out 18 assists, 9 steals, 4 blocks, 44 points in the paint, 12 bench points and committed 7 turnovers.

    Malik Reneau became the 55th player in Indiana University Men’s Basketball history to join the 1,000-point club. Reneau went 7-7 from the field, 1-1 from the free throw line, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, a block and a steal. The team rallied around Head Coach Mike Woodson after the game after the school announced he was retiring at the end of this season. “That means a lot. This is my 4th year here. Anthony, Gallo, and Malik have been around me a lot. They know truly what I’m about… it was special. Anytime your players rally around you, I love them.” Woodson said after the game.

     Today’s win over Purdue marked the 40th anniversary of when Hall of Fame Coach Bob Knight threw a chair against Purdue in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, and he was ejected as the Hoosiers lost 72-63. Mike Woodson got the chair and sat in it the chair on the bench to dedicate the anniversary to the man that Woodson played for when he was player at Indiana and having the chair is special to him. “That is probably the chair. I’ve had it a while. A lot of people say they have the chair. I wasn’t going to throw the chair” Mike Woodson said.

    Flecther Loyer scored 20 points and Myles Colvin added 11 points. Trey Kaufman-Renn finished with 9 points and 4 rebounds as he fouled out with 4:30 left in the game and Braden Smith was held to 8 points along with 5 assists and 2 rebounds. Smith went over 500 rebounds for his career. Purdue finished the game 20-47 from the field for 42%, 7-16 from three-point range for 43% and 11-15 from the free throw line for 73%. Purdue pulled down 28 rebounds, dished out 9 assists, 5 steals, no blocks, 18 points in the paint, 16 bench points and committed 16 turnovers.

    There were 5 ties and 3 lead changes as Purdue finished the first half on a 21-4 run in the last eight minutes and thirty-nine seconds of the half as Purdue led 37-25 at halftime. Indiana came out in the second half and went on 7-0 run to trail the Boilermakers 37-32 with 18:41 left in regulation. The Hoosiers chipped away at the lead trailing 39-37 with 15:39 left in the second half. The Hoosiers tied the game 39-39 on a Malik Reneau dunk at the 15:27 mark. Trey Kaufman-Renn gave Purdue a 41-40 lead on a made free throw at the 15:11 mark.

    Luke Goode gave the Hoosiers the lead with a made layup and completed the three as the Hoosiers led 42-40 with 14:39 left in the game. Indiana led the rest of the way outscoring Purdue 31-13 and sending the Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall crowd into a frenzy. It’s the second time that Indiana has beaten Purdue at home when the Boilers are ranked in the top 15. Indiana beat Purdue 79-74 on February 4, 2023, which was the last win in the series snapping a three-game losing streak to their archrivals.

    Indiana is 66-44 all-time against Purdue in Bloomington and for Mike Woodson this is biggest one yet with him retiring at the end of the season. Not only does it mean so much to the head coach it means a lot to players as well. “It means so much to all of us, because it means so much to the state of Indiana.” Senior Trey Galloway said after the game and Indiana is 4-4 against Purdue with Mike Woodson as Head Coach.

    Trey Galloway added “This is Coach’s last year, so we want to make it special for him, but we want to make it special for everyone.” Trey Galloway says this team has been a family since being put together in June and they’re not giving up on going dancing. Indiana could have packed in at halftime and the Hoosiers responded with a 15-point home over a ranked Purdue in Coach Woodson last go against the Purdue unless they meet up in the Big Ten Tournament and on the 40th anniversary of Bob Knight’s famous chair throw against Purdue. It’s only fitting that the Hoosiers came away with the win.