BLOOMINGTON — Indiana begins the New Year with an 84-74 win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The Hoosiers did it without their leading scorer Malik Reneau, who went down with a knee injury in the first two minutes of the game, and never returned.
IU head coach Mike Woodson said, “we’ll evaluate him tomorrow through our medical staff and see where he is and if he can’t play, it’s next man up. We just got to continue to go [with] whoever is in uniform.”
And tonight, Oumar Ballo was the next man up, who came off the bench and contributed 17 points and 12 rebounds.
"It was great. He played dominant. We know what he can do. That's why we brought him here to be a dominant presence down there and that's where we needed him today, just continue to build on that and stay focused on what we're doing," said 5th year senior Anthony Leal.
Indiana had a season high of 12 three pointers, shooting 44.4% from behind the arc. The Hoosiers dominated the glass, adding 18 offensive rebounds, and 34 second chance points.
Woodson hopes those 3 pointers will continue to "carryover because I thought in the Winthrop game we got some good looks, we just didn't make them. Tonight, guys stepped up and they knocked them down which we're going to need moving forward."
And even on a night where Rutgers freshman Ace Bailey dropped 39 points, Indiana was still able to hold off the Scarlet Knights.
Team cohesion and gritty effort allowed the Hoosiers to take this one home. A key home win that was necessary to start out the month of January on a high note.
"Someone has to come out and set the tone every game and you hope that happens in the first few possessions where somebody makes a hard play like that and it kicks in with everyone else and it becomes contagious and everybody is like okay, we got to really match that energy or else we're just going to be letting them down. It's becoming contagious and it's selfless team basketball and that's what we're about," said Anthony Leal.
The Hoosiers will look to continue that selfless team basketball and contagious energy when they head to the Palestra in Philadelphia, PA, on Sunday to take on Penn State at noon.
