No. 12 seed Penn State kept it close in the first half, but hot-shooting No. 5 seed Indiana broke open a tight game in the second half as the Hoosiers won their first Big Ten Tournament game in six years, 75-58, on Thursday in Indianapolis.
Tim Frazier led the Nittany Lions (14-20) with 26 points and five steals, but Penn State had limited secondary scoring and went into the locker room down 38-32 at half in the opening-round game.
“Well, we had to do a much better job on Frazier — he was in the lane too much. We had to play some more zone and I thought we did a better job on Marshall (in the second half),” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “We had to a regroup and we did.”
Indiana, ranked No. 15, opened up the second half on a 16-4 run. Jordan Hulls, who made 7 of 10 shots, scored a game-high 20 points and helped lead an inside-outside attack by the Hoosiers that highlighted Big Ten Freshman of the Year Cody Zeller. He finished with 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for Indiana, which lost Verdell Jones III to a right knee injury late in the first half.
Penn State was able to pull within 13 with 10:26 remaining in the game but failed to close the gap any further.
Frazier’s performance put him over the 600-point mark for the season. He became only the fifth Nittany Lion to break that threshold in Penn State history.
Indiana (25-7) will move on to play No. 4 seed Wisconsin (23-8) in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament Friday at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
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