IU basketball lost its third straight game on Tuesday, falling 72-68 to Northwestern at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Here are five takeaways from the loss to the Wildcats:
Once again, Hoosiers fail to capitalize on double-digit lead
Tuesdays loss was Indianas third this season in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and in two of those setbacks, the Hoosiers led by double figures.
On January 10 against Nebraska, Indiana led 51-35 with 16:54 to play before a second-half collapse saw the Cornhuskers leave Bloomington with an 83-77 victory.
And yesterday, the Hoosiers led 38-25 with 4:48 in the first half before being outscored 47-30 the rest of the contest.
In both instances, Indiana failed to put their opponent away when given the opportunity. Indiana also squandered double-figure leads in wins against Purdue, UCLA and Wisconsin, but narrowly escaped two of those games in overtime and made a few keys late to beat the Boilermakers.
Just our overall consistency of sustaining 40 minutes has been an issue for us in multiple games, Darian DeVries said postgame. So certainly showed up again tonight.
Northwestern won the battle on the boards
The Hoosiers and Wildcats entered Tuesdays game ranked in the bottom seven of the conference in offensive and defensive rebounding percentage.
Northwestern was grabbing just 25.1 percent of its missed shots in conference play through its first 16 league games. But the Wildcats were the aggressor on the boards on Tuesday.
In its four-point comeback win, Northwestern grabbed 11 offensive rebounds and won the second-chance points battle 12-1.
Northwesterns offensive rebounding percentage of 37.9 was its third-highest mark in a Big Ten game this season and its highest since January 14 against Illinois.
The Hoosiers, on the other hand, have generated next to nothing on the offensive glass for three straight games.
IU has scored a total of six second-chance points in the last three games. In total, it has been outscored 42-6 in second-chance points over its last 120 minutes of basketball.
Indiana falls flat offensively in the second half
After a strong opening 20 minutes in which it scored 42 points and 1.5 points per possession, the Hoosiers had one of their worst offensive performances this season in the second half against Northwestern.
Indiana shot just 8-for-26 from the field, which included a 2-for-12 mark on 3s (16.6 percent).
Only four players scored in the second half and Tayton Conerway, who scored a team-high nine points after halftime, played just nine minutes.
Conerway was a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor in the second half. He was the only player on the IU roster to register a positive plus/minus at +4 in the second half.
While its easy to point to Lamar Wilkersons struggles in the second half – he was 0-for-9 from the field – the lack of a reliable supporting cast to step up and make a play continues to hurt IU.
Conor Enright, Nick Dorn, Jasai Miles and Reed Bailey played a combined 40 second-half minutes and did not contribute a point.
Indiana had no answer for Nick Martinelli
The Big Tens leading scorer, Nick Martinelli, had a tough first half on Tuesday.
Martinelli was just 3-for-9 from the field and scored seven points in 19 minutes.
