Indiana vs. Purdue: Best games from the last decade of the rivalry

5. at #22 Indiana 77, #17 Purdue 73 (February 20, 2016)

Both Indiana and Purdue already had 21 wins when they met up in Bloomington late in the season. These were a pair of solid squads, and it was the rivalry’s first game with both teams ranked in eight years. Purdue began the year 11-0, but Indiana had the advantage in Big Ten Play, coming in at 11-3, two games above their rivals in the Big Ten standings. Both teams had a slew of winnable conference games after this match-up, making this late February contest even more important.

Purdue took the early advantage in the game but could never push the lead to more than four points. The Hoosiers took their first lead on a Juwan Morgan 3-pointer (making it 17-15) and would never look back. Indiana would lead by as much as 19 in the second half, but Purdue wasn’t finished. They were still down 13 with 4:30 left, but kept hustling, with key lay-ups by Caleb Swanigan and a couple of well-timed shots. Dakota Mathias hit a 3-pointer to make it a 2-point game with 39 seconds left, but Indiana used the entire shot-clock and Yogi Ferrell buried Purdue with a lay-up. Troy Williams of the Hoosiers lead all scorers with 19 points while Purdue’s balanced attack saw 5 players in double figures.  The Boilermakers made 47.4% (9-19) of their 3-pointers, but they needed just a little more magic to pull this one out.

Purdue rebounded from their loss with five straight wins, falling just short of a Big Ten title in a loss to Michigan State. They would earn a 5-seed and fall to a surprising Little Rock team in double overtime. Indiana kept on winning, though they would fall in the Big Ten quarterfinals to Michigan before nabbing a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament themselves. They did not fall victim to the early upset, instead losing by 15 to North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen. Neither season ended the way these programs expected, but this was certainly the time in recent memory when both teams were pretty good.