Bracey Wright and the Indiana Hoosiers snapped a three-game losing streak Wednesday night, cruising past the Penn State Nittany Lions 75-56 at the Bryce Jordan center. An early string of 3-pointers helped the Hoosiers take a 12-point halftime lead. Play in the second half was tighter, but Penn State couldn’t solve Indiana’s balanced scoring attack. The Hoosiers improve to 12-9 overall and 5-4 in Big Ten action with the win. The Nittany Lions drop to 9-11 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten.
Three Hoosiers made it to double digits in scoring. Bracey Wright finished with 25, Marshall with 17 and A.J. Moye with 10.
The Hoosiers shot out of the gate, shooting 57.1 percent from the field and draining a season-high nine 3-pointers in the first half. Strickland was a perfect three-for-three from beyond the arc in the first half. Wright had 12 first-half points.
Indiana continuously built on its lead, going up by as much as 19 points, 29-10, at the 8:53 mark. The Nittany Lions chipped away at the big lead, bringing it to within 10, 37-27, with two minutes left in the first stanza, but the Hoosiers simply proved too much. Wright provided excitement as he hit a long jumper at the buzzer to give the Hoosiers a 39-27 lead heading into the break.
Penn State tried to cut into the Indiana lead once again during the first nine minutes of the second half. The Nittany Lions came within 12 points before Indiana went on a 9-0 run to establish its largest lead of the night, 62-41 at the 8:03 mark. The Hoosiers never allowed the Nittany Lions to get within reach as they matched their largest lead of 21 points twice more during the game.
With less than five minutes to play and Indiana enjoying a 20-point lead, head coach Mike Davis was able to substitute freely, allowing 11 different Hoosiers to see action.
The Hoosiers capitalized on Penn State’s mistakes as they scored 27 points off of 16 turnovers. By comparison, Indiana committed a season-low six turnovers, which Penn State managed to convert into zero points.
Indiana held Penn State to just 34 percent from the field and 27 percent from the 3-point line.
Aaron Johnson had an extraordinary night for the Nittany Lions. The sophomore came off the bench to bring down 15 rebounds and score 28 points, equaling the point-production of all of his teammates combined. The double-double was Johnson’s second of the season and second in as many games.
– compiled from staff reports