Wildcats Hand Hoosiers first loss at home

  The #25 ranked Excel H Sports Indiana Hoosiers Men’s Basketball team lose their second straight Big Ten game, losing to the Northwestern Wildcats 84-83 Sunday afternoon in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

  Indiana is 10-5 on the season and 1-4 in the Big Ten and will travel to Penn State Wednesday night for a 7pm matchup with the Nittany Lions. Northwestern improves to 3-1 in the Big Ten for just the third time in 55 seasons and 12-3 overall. Northwestern has won 5 of the last 11 meetings against the Hoosiers as Indiana now leads the all-time series 120-54.

  Freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino scored a career high 33 points on 12-17 shooting, 5-7 from the three-point line and 4-6 from the free throw line. Hood-Schifino had three rebounds, three assists and committed six turnovers, Hood Schifno’s 33 points is the most for a freshman since Eric Gordon in 2007. Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 18 points but pulled down a whopping 24 rebounds which is the which is the most by an IU player since Kent Benson in 1975.   Jackson-Davis had eight assists and four blocks. Tamar Bates had nine points, Trey Galloway and Malik Reneau finished with eight points apiece. Miller Kopp who started his career at Northwestern finished with five points, CJ Gunn had two points and Jordan Geronimo who started in place of the injured Race Thompson did not score.   Thompson was injured in the first half of last Thursday night’s loss at Iowa with a knee injury and he will be out indefinitely putting the Hoosiers down two starters with Xavier Johnson sidelined with a foot injury. “We have two starters sitting on the sideline and that’s why we are struggling a little bit, we got to keep working and nobody is going to feel sorry for the Indiana Hoosiers” Head Coach Mike Woodson Said after the game.

   Northwestern was led in scoring with 26 points from Boo Buie, Chase Audige finished with 19, Ty Berry and Robbie Beran finished with 13 points each. The Wildcats finished 29-63 from the field for 46%, 7-19 from three-point line for 36% and 19-28 from the free throw line for 68%. Berry had a double-double has he pulled down 11 rebounds as Northwestern had 32 for the game. The Wildcats had 15 assists, 14 steals, 6 blocks and committed just 7 turnovers. Chris Collins squad has won seven of last eight games.

  Northwestern led 2-0 when Robbie Beran scored 23 seconds into the game. Indiana followed with a 5-0 run on a Hood-Schifino three pointer and Trayce Jackson-Davis layup made it 5-2 with 18:24 left. Buie scored for the Wildcats to make 5-4. Beran hit a three pointer to make 7-5 and give the Wildcats the lead. The game would be tied at 7-7 and 9-9 with two Jalen Hood-Schifno baskets. Northwestern took control of the game going on 10-0 to put the Wildcats up 19-9 with 14:11 left in the first half. Indiana would go 10-0 run to cut the lead down to 34-27 with 5:55 left to go before halftime after being down 34-19. Northwestern scored on a Matt Nicholson dunk with 2 seconds left after he was left wide open down the floor. The Wildcats opened the second half on a 10-2 run to lead by 15 with 15:59 left to go in the game. Indiana was down 11 points with 1:59 left when the Hoosiers got going and we able to get the game down to one point with Trey Galloway hitting a half court three as time expired.

  Indiana shot 32-62 for 51% from the field, 9-18 from three-point range for 50% and 10-14 from the free throw line for 71%. The Hoosiers had 40 rebounds, 14 assists, five blocks, two steals and committed 16 turnovers. Northwestern started off the game with 24 points off turnovers and finished 25 to six (6) against the Hoosiers in that statistic. In the first half Indiana looked lost on defense, missing switches on defense and not closing out on the shooters on the outside. It also led to Northwestern getting easy looks inside and beating the Hoosiers down the floor time after time. “We need to quit fouling we had (8) eight fouls in the first ten minutes and gave them the bonus and also need to quit making them straight line drive and that will make a difference” Trayce Jackson Davis said after the game.