Trayce Jackson-Davis continued his string of dominant performances Tuesday night with 20 points, including the 2,000th of his career, and 18 rebounds as No. 18 Indiana grinded out a 66-60 Big Ten Conference win over No. 24 Rutgers in Bloomington, Ind.
Miller Kopp added 18 points for the Hoosiers (17-7, 8-5), which tied the Scarlet Knights for second place in the conference with their seventh win in eight games. Jackson-Davis added six assists and could have achieved a triple-double if his teammates had converted some makeable shots.
Clifford Omoruyi scored 15 points for Rutgers (16-8, 8-5) and Cam Spencer added 14, but the Scarlet Knights made just 39.7 percent of their shots from the field. In the second half, they were even worse, hitting only 10 of 31.
Jackson-Davis dunked his own miss with 11:09 left for a 54-44 lead, putting him at 2,001 for his career. It was the last Indiana field goal for nearly nine minutes, but his putback with 2:26 remaining help hold off a late Rutgers surge.
The Hoosiers’ main advantage came at the foul line, where they were 17-of-24 as opposed to the Scarlet Knights’ 6-of -10.
Indiana set an early tone behind tough defense and improved execution on offense against an opponent that beat it in the previous six matchups. Playing through Jackson-Davis, the Hoosiers spent the first 11 minutes carving up one of the nation’s top defensive teams.
Kopp, a talented shooter who hasn’t hunted his shot often this season with the emphasis on feeding Jackson-Davis, canned a jumper and a 3-pointer back-to-back to force a Rutgers timeout at the 8:59 mark with Indiana leading 25-14.
But the Scarlet Knights worked their way back into the game as they forced some turnovers and got nine points off the bench from Oskar Palmquist, all on 3-pointers. When Aundre Hyatt drilled a 3-pointer with 27 seconds left, Rutgers trailed just 38-35 at halftime.
The Hoosiers shot 60.9 percent from the field in the half and drew 10 assists off 14 made baskets. They went on to shoot just 32.0 percent in the second half.
–Field Level Media
