Jackson-Davis, No. 21 Indiana knock off No. 1 Purdue 79-74
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Trayce Jackson-Davis returned to Indiana so he could celebrate a banner season.
On Saturday, the fourthyear forward added another big piece to his legacy.
He scored 25 points and then watched Jalen Hood-Schifino break free for the clinching dunk with 2 seconds left to give No. 21 Indiana a 79-74 victory over No. 1 Purdue — and a quick storming of the court.
It’s the fourth time the Hoosiers have beaten the nation’s top-ranked team at Assembly Hall, and the first since upsetting Michigan almost exactly 10 years earlier.
“I just think it’s a toughness factor,” Jackson-Davis said, explaining why this team is different. “I feel like teams in the past that I’ve been on just weren’t that tough, honestly. We’ve kind of played with a chip on our shoulders since we got punked by Rutgers and we’ve kind of found our niche and that’s what we’re doing.’
The only guy that’s been even close to Jackson-Davis’ productivity over the past month has been Purdue’s Zach Edey, who had 33 points and 18 rebounds.
But it was Jackson-Davis who walked away with his sixth win in seven games by moving within 16 points of becoming the first Indiana player to ever score 2,000 and grab 1,000 rebounds. He finished with seven rebounds and five blocks.
Indiana (16-7, 7-5 Big Ten) forced 16 turnovers and shot 52.6 percent from the field against a defense that had held 24 consecutive opponents to 70 or fewer points. It won despite getting outrebounded 38-22 and nearly blowing a 16-point lead.
The 7-foot-4 Edey positioned Purdue (22-2, 11-2) for the charge by scoring eight of Purdue’s first 10 second-half points to cut a 15-point deficit to nine. He then added the final six points in a 12-4 spurt that made it 67-65 with 5:40 to play. And when Braden Smith’s layup made it 7170 with 2:03 left, even Boilermakers coach Matt Painter sensed the fans’ angst.
“If you can flip that or tie it or take the lead there, it’s just a different feeling,” he said. “It’s really hard to overcome that, the air kind of goes out of it, things get quiet in your own arena.”
Instead, the Hoosiers forced three turnovers and eventually closed it out with four free throws, a layup from Hood-Schifino and the dunk off a perfectly designed inbound pass from second-year coach Mike Woodson, who has won both home meetings against Indiana’s archrival.
“I didn’t know the play was going to go that way, obviously,” said Hood-Schifino, who had 16 points. “But in the last timeout, I told coach I’m going to get this last bucket, so I was happy.”