As Trey Galloway cashed in the second of back-to-back 3-pointers with 5:14 left in the second half against Penn State, he flexed and nodded toward the Indiana bench as he made his way over.
The triple gave the Hoosiers a four-point lead they didn’t relinquish the rest of the way Wednesday night, securing a necessary 83-78 win to keep postseason hopes alive.
It may have taken a while for Indiana to play its best basketball, but it’s happening at the right time.
“These guys are playing for something,” Mike Woodson said postgame. “We’re trying to get in the tournament. We’ve got three games left.”
While finding a true personification of a shared goal or connectedness is difficult, IU did the closest thing to it – 24 assists on 29 made field goals.
Following up an 18-assist performance against Purdue, the Hoosiers notched marks they hadn’t accomplished since a 21-assist outing against Minnesota on Dec. 9. Wednesday night’s assist total was narrowly shy of a season-high 26 assists on Nov. 10 against Eastern Illinois.
With five double-digit scorers against the Nittany Lions despite Malik Reneau’s absence due to illness, everyone on the floor was engaged and contributing. Shots were falling all around and it was in large part because of trust building up.
“We’ve really preached on sharing the ball and making the right play,” Galloway said. “We got great shots out of our offense flowing and being able to move the ball because we knew they were going to hard hedge and put two on the ball.”
While the philosophy was being applied offensively all night, it wasn’t the case on the defensive side of the ball early on.
IU got off to a sluggish start – nearly a trademark this season – and played back and forth the entire first half. Led by Ace Baldwin Jr., the Nittany Lions’ trio of guards got past Indiana’s backcourt with ease possession after possession, earning easy looks at the rim.
Once the inside was established, Penn State also started to connect from the outside. Baldwin made all three of his 3-point attempts in the first half and the team shot 4-for-8.
Both teams played sloppy, though. Penn State committed seven first-half turnovers and the Hoosiers had eight, four at the hands of Galloway.
However, the mistakes didn’t slow down the Hoosiers. With Oumar Ballo shouldering the load with 11 points in the half, Indiana shot 60 percent and went 4-for-7 from deep in the first 20 minutes. The Nittany Lions hit at an even more impressive 64 percent clip and held a 39-37 halftime lead.
When the urgency escalated in the second half, Galloway rose to the occasion. He scored 12 points – all from beyond the arc – and added five assists to total nine on the night. And, of course, the back-to-back threes that swung momentum.
That said, the defensive effort stepped up when needed. As Penn State continued to shoot over 60 percent as the half progressed, the Hoosiers needed to lock in and string stops together before it was too late.
With six minutes left, that’s precisely what happened.
After Nick Kern put in a layup to take a 69-67 lead with 5:59 to go, IU dug deep and stood its ground. The result? Forcing Penn State to finish the game 2-for-10 from the field.
“I told them at halftime, the team that is going to defend and rebound this half is going to win the game,” Woodson said. “I thought coming down the stretch we made the defensive stops we needed.”
It hasn’t just been the results that have changed for Indiana, it’s been how they’ve done so. Whether it be riding emotional highs, firing each other up, or leaving it all out there – like Luke Goode hitting the floor to beat an oversized opponent for a key rebound – the Hoosiers have changed their tune.
Finally finding moments of resilience and toughness after inconsistencies earlier this season, IU’s experience is taking over. With a four-senior starting lineup Wednesday night, the feeling of now or never is kicking in for Woodson’s team and it has played like so as of late.
With an important two-game stretch on the west coast next, the beginning of the end is nearing. For the Hoosier veterans, it’s about embracing it all and doing so together.
“We just have to keep reminding each other to cherish every moment because wins and losses, it’s all special because you’re learning through it all,” Galloway said. “When it’s over we’re all going to miss it and it’s going to be tough to really understand what it meant to put on this uniform and go to war with our brothers every day.”
In a game that featured 10 ties and seven lead changes, Indiana needed every piece to complete the puzzle. From Ballo’s 36-minute double-double to Langdon Hatton’s four minutes on the court, every player who saw the floor contributed to the win.
Moving forward, the Hoosiers need their connection to be more than a bond that comes and goes – it needs to be unbreakable. If that’s the case, Woodson’s motive – the tournament – remains in sight.