BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball got the Quad 1 win it needed on Tuesday night with a 72-67 victory over Purdue.
The Hoosiers (14-7, 5-5 Big Ten) upended the No. 12 Boilermakers (17-4, 7-3) in front of a lively sold out crowd at Assembly Hall. The fans were fired up before the game even tipped off with football coach Curt Cignetti and a handful of his players making an appearance with national championship trophy in tow.
Cignetti, who has only attended a handful of basketball games, stayed until the very end to watch IU coach Darian DeVries pick up his first win in the heated rivalry.
Conor Enright hit the key shot down the stretch to help the Hoosiers close out the win after the double-digit lead they built going into halftime nearly evaporated. Lamar Wilkerson led IU with 19 points and Nick Dorn added 18 points.
Purdue doesn't go down without a fight at Assembly Hall
Purdue clamped down on Indiana basketball down the stretch to pull within two points with 1:28 to go off a Braden Smith layup. The Hoosiers went 1 for 8 and went nearly four minutes without any points as the Boilermakers made it a two-possession game.
They shot just 40.9% from the field in the second half — and missed the front end of three straight one-and-ones from the free-throw line — while Purdue leaned on Trey Kaufman-Renn to turn the game into a nail biter. Kaufman-Renn scored 16 of his 23 points coming out of halftime and the Boilermakers kept feeding him the ball into the post.
In desperate need of a basket, Conor Enright put up a 3-pointer from the corner and IU came up with a steal on the other end to get the momentum back.
Enright was an unlikely hero for a Hoosiers team filled with sharp-shooters. He's shooting just 33% from deep this season and the eighth-leading scorer (4.5 points per game) on a team that generally keeps a rotation of just eight players.
DeVries has complimented Enright's veteran savvy as a player with three-plus years of starting experience going back to the time they spent together at Drake. He had eight points and eight assists while playing the entire 40 minutes.
Indiana basketball ends first half on a high note against the Boilermakers
Purdue led 23-19 with 7:04 to go in the first half, but were outscored after that 21-6 going into the break. The Hoosiers put together a 13-0 run during that stretch that ended with a 3-pointer from Jasai Miles.
Miles hadn’t knocked down a shot since IU’s win over Milwaukee on Nov. 12.
Indiana hit five 3-pointers in total to take a 40-29 lead at the half with Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries both heating up at the right time. The Hoosiers also got big minutes from backup center Reed Bailey, who had nine points off the bench in the half after Sam Alexis got into early foul trouble.
Purdue coach Matt Painter burned multiple timeouts in hopes of quieting the crowd, but IU just kept on hitting shots.
The Boilermakers were just two turnovers shy (seven) in the first half of matching their season average (9.3) while Indiana managed to neutralize Purdue’s size advantage by doubling Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff in the paint.
Indiana basketball starting guard Tayton Conerway sits out against Purdue
Conerway (lower body) didn't play after being listed as questionable on the Big Ten's availability report for the matchup. This was the first time this season he sat out for an entire game.
The senior tried to play through the injury — he scored a pair of key baskets late in the second half of a win over Rutgers while playing limited minutes (16) — but Darian DeVries told reporters on Monday that Conerway wasn't doing much of anything at practice.
He's averaging 11.2 points per game with 3.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game this season.
Indiana relied on a combination of Dorn and Miles to eat up the minutes Conerway usually plays. Dorn hit a series of clutch 3-pointers in the game, including back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the second half that pushed IU's lead back up to double-digits.
Dorn was one of two IU players in double-digits while Miles played a season-high 15 minutes.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana basketball pulls out upset win over No. 12 Purdue
