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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Mosquera-Perea continues to shine since return

Junior Hanner Mosquera-Perea fights for position to rebound a free throw during IU's game against Georgetown's center Joshua Smith on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Mosquera-Pera finished the game with only two points.

Hanner Mosquera-Perea insists his knee is no longer a factor.

The junior forward has steadily regained his endurance and isn’t using his once-injured knee as an excuse. It’s all about his ?mentality now.

“I need to be more aggressive,” Mosquera-Perea said Saturday morning.

Against Rutgers (10-18, 2-13), Mosquera-Perea finished with 13 points and five rebounds in IU’s 84-54 win.

Now that his health is no longer a concern, Mosquera-Perea has been working his way back into game shape and being more ?consistent.

It’s a topic he and IU Coach Tom Crean have spoken about at length, but with a thin frontcourt, Mosquera-Perea knows he needs to be the anchor in the middle.

His performance wasn’t perfect, but there were flashes of dependability Sunday.

Mosquera-Perea was able to stay out of foul trouble — picking up only two fouls on close calls in the second half — while still ?being a presence on the ?defensive end.

He scored his career-high 13 points on just three field goal attempts.

He was 7-for-8 from the free-throw line and had a rim-rattling dunk on a lob from junior guard Yogi Ferrell.

It was the second consecutive game that those two had connected for a high-percentage dunk.

For Mosquera-Perea, it’s his strongest stretch since he had 21 points on 9-for-13 shooting and 11 rebounds against Louisville and ?Grand Canyon.

Now the challenge is carrying the momentum to Evanston, Ill., where the Hoosiers will play Northwestern on Wednesday.

IU’s NCAA Tournament resume is helped, in part, by the absence of a “bad loss.”

Rutgers would have instantly become IU’s worst loss of the season had IU been unable to take care of business, but that possibility quickly got blown out of question.

The Scarlet Knights entered Sunday ranked No. 144 in the RPI — the worst among Big Ten teams.

November’s home loss to Eastern Washington stands as the worst loss of the season thus far. While a home loss to a Big Sky team isn’t ideal, the Eagles are No. 74 in the RPI, which makes the nonconference loss a bit easier to swallow.

The Hoosiers have one more potential “bad loss” to avoid Wednesday on the road against Northwestern. The Wildcats are the second-worst team in the Big Ten, ranked No. 117.

After that, the Hoosiers have No. 59 Iowa and No. 30 Michigan State remaining. A loss to either wouldn’t be detrimental, but multiple losses certainly wouldn’t help.

Road wins have been hard to come by for IU the last two seasons.

IU’s 30-point victory against Rutgers was just the fifth road win for the Hoosiers since the start of last season. Since then, the only teams with fewer Big Ten road wins are Nebraska and Rutgers.

The road hasn’t been kind to the Hoosiers this year.

The third Big Ten road win joins earlier wins against Nebraska and Illinois to go along with a 6-1 conference record at home.

IU only has Wednesday’s road game against Northwestern remaining before returning home end the season.

The Hoosiers will then look to improve upon their 1-2 record on neutral courts when they travel to the United Center for the Big Ten Tournament next month.

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