Indiana cleans up turnover trouble, takes down Rutgers 76-57
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) – First, Indiana took care of the ball Sunday.
Then the Hoosiers got back to business.
James Blackmon Jr. scored 16 points, OG Anunoby added 11 points and seven steals and the Hoosiers used a 23-point scoring advantage off turnovers to blow past Rutgers 76-57.
“We wanted to be active, no question about it,” coach Tom Crean said. “We wanted to set the tone with defense and we thought we did.”
It’s about time.
Since the defending Big Ten champions climbed as high as No. 3 in the Top 25 , fans have been mystified by Indiana’s sudden struggles.
The Hoosiers (12-6, 2-3) dropped four of their previous five games primarily because of turnovers and a defense that wasn’t playing well enough.
This time, they flipped the script. Indiana had only one turnover in the first 16 minutes and finished with just 11.
Rutgers, meanwhile, committed 21 turnovers and was outscored 33-10 in transition.
Indiana finished with 14 steals, easily a season best.
“We all tried to jump the gaps and be aggressive with our hands,” Anunoby said after tying William Gladness and Jim Crews for the fourth-highest single-game steals total in school history.
The Scarlet Knights (11-8, 0-6) sure didn’t make it easy early, though.
They jumped to a 15-6 lead just 6:34 into the game.
But Indiana roared back with a 20-3 run to seize control. After one more Rutgers basket, the Hoosiers scored 10 straight to make it 37-23 with 4:23 to play and Rutgers never challenged seriously again.
Corey Sanders scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half, and C.J. Gettys added 12 points and seven rebounds for the Scarlet Knights, who have lost seven straight overall and all five games in the Indiana series.
“When we’re five-on-five, we can guard people and we talked about a lot about it,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. “I thought we could withstand that (the turnovers), we couldn’t withstand the awful free-throw shooting, too.”