Myles Rice, Oumar Ballo lead Indiana past Rutgers

Field Level Media|published: Thu 2nd January, 23:17 2025

Jan 2, 2025; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers guard Myles Rice (1) dribbles the ball while Rutgers Scarlet Knights guard Jeremiah Williams (25) defends in the first half at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Myles Rice scored 21 points and Indiana overcame the loss of leading scorer Malik Reneau to shoot its way past Rutgers 84-74 in a wild game Thursday in Bloomington, Ind.

Reneau injured his right knee 29 seconds into the game and subbed out in favor of Oumar Ballo, who missed Indiana's previous game for an undisclosed reason.

Ballo answered the bell and compiled 17 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. Mackenzie Mgbako added 16 points and seven rebounds, Trey Galloway had 11 points and Luke Goode scored nine for the Hoosiers (11-3, 2-1 Big Ten).

Rutgers (8-6, 1-2) played without star freshman Dylan Harper, the fourth-leading scorer in the country, due to an illness.

Fellow freshman Ace Bailey picked up the slack with a season-high 39 points on 16-of-29 shooting and eight rebounds. None of his teammates scored more than Jamichael Davis's nine.

Indiana made 12 of 27 3-point attempts one game after shooting 1-for-20 from beyond the arc. The Hoosiers outrebounded Rutgers 48-36 and earned a 34-8 edge in second-chance points.

With Rutgers trailing 16-10, Bailey singlehandedly tied it back up. He hit a long 2-pointer, a difficult fadeaway and another jumper while spinning in the paint.

That ignited a 13-0 Rutgers run to give the Scarlet Knights their largest lead about 10 minutes into the game. Bailey accounted for 11 of those points.

Indiana strung together a 10-0 run to flip a five-point deficit to a 34-29 lead with 4:07 before halftime. Bailey responded with a three-point play to get to 19 points in the half.

On the final sequence of the half, Bailey stuffed Rice's layup off the backboard and the ball careened toward midcourt. Anthony Leal collected it and sent up a wild 3-pointer at the buzzer that banked in to make it 41-34 Hoosiers.

Mgbako drained a 3-pointer to spark a 9-0 run that gave Indiana its largest lead at 56-38 with 12:35 to play. Lathan Sommerville's two three-point plays anchored an 8-0 Rutgers spurt to cut it to 10.

Bailey added two more threes to close the Scarlet Knights within 58-52, but Rutgers played a zone that was weak against Indiana's 3-point shooting, especially from the corners.

Goode made two and Galloway sank another to stretch the lead to 71-57 at the 4:08 mark. The Hoosiers weren't threatened the rest of the way.

--Field Level Media

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