WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Gold and black confetti rained down on IU.
The Hoosiers were on the wrong end of a coronation just a season after they won the Big Ten title.
With an opportunity to clinch at least a share of the Big Ten title Tuesday, Purdue didn’t squander the opportunity against IU at Mackey Arena and the Boilermakers defeated the Hoosiers 86-75.
The victory also helped cement Purdue’s sophomore forward Caleb Swanigan’s case for the Big Ten Player of the Year award as he had 21 points and 10 rebounds, dominating the second half with 17 points.
“Obviously, Caleb is hard to guard,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “He’s very difficult to guard.”
IU’s only lead of the game came when freshman forward Devonte Green hit a three-pointer to put IU up three with 11:05 left in the first half. This came after Purdue missed nine of 11 shots after getting off to a strong start.
After IU got the lead, Purdue answered back with a quick 8-0 run, powered by Purdue junior guard Dakota Mathias, who torched IU in the first half with 17 points.
“Mathias, in my opinion, has been the key to their team,” Crean said. “We did a great job against him at our place. That’s some of the video that we lead off with and how good he is moving without the ball. He got hot and we lost him a couple of times and I think that hurt us.”
It wasn’t just Mathias, as Purdue made its next seven shots after Green’s three-pointer and the Boilermakers went on a 28-8 run.
IU closed the deficit to four points with 16:52 left in the game on a corner three-pointer by sophomore forward Juwan Morgan.
Swanigan created matchup issues for the Hoosiers in the second half as his size overwhelmed IU’s front line. Both sophomore center Thomas Bryant and freshman forward De’Ron Davis struggled with foul trouble the entire game, which meant junior forward Tim Priller got some meaningful minutes.
“Tim Priller is getting better, he really is,” Crean said. “He’s got a nice touch. He works extremely hard. He puts in the same time that other people do and he doesn’t get the same opportunity because they’re better, but he works at it.”
When called upon, Priller was ready, scoring six points off the bench.
“It’s a great opportunity and I’m glad I could,” Priller said. “Every time if I go out there, I’m just going to try and fight as hard as I can for my teammates.”
Priller couldn’t help IU claw back in the second half as the Hoosiers lost their 11th conference game of the season and moved to 16-14 overall. After the game Crean didn’t want to talk about how an experience like this could help his young team moving forward.
“I don’t coach for the future, I mean I really don’t,” Crean said. “I coach for the present.”
