Tuesday night at Assembly Hall the Indiana Hoosiers knocked off the No. 12 Purdue Boilermakers 72-67, dealing the Boilermakers a third consecutive loss and delivering head coach Darian DeVries his biggest win since taking over the program.
Indiana organized a stripe-out, turning the Assembly Hall seats into alternating sections of cream and crimson. Football head coach Curt Cignetti and several players from the national championship team were honored during a pregame ceremony on the same court where Cignetti once proclaimed "Purdue sucks."
Then the Hoosiers went out and backed it up.
Elon transfer Nick Dorn was the story. The junior guard, making just his second start as a Hoosier, caught fire and finished with 18 points. That marked his second-highest total of the season after he scored 23 in a blowout win at Rutgers the game prior. After drilling back-to-back threes in the second half, the energy inside Assembly Hall shifted from hopeful to electric.
Lamar Wilkerson led all scorers with 19 points, continuing his breakout season under DeVries. The senior transfer from Sam Houston State has now topped 15 points 15 times this year while hitting multiple 3s in 16 contests.
Tucker DeVries contributed nine points and 10 rebounds, while Reed Bailey matched that point total as the leading scorer off the bench.
Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn was a problem all night, scoring 23 points and keeping the Boilermakers within striking distance. Braden Smith added 14 points and five assists but turned it over four times and couldn't find his rhythm from three when it counted.
The final minutes told the story. IU, which led by as many as 14 in the second half, built a 10-point lead with less than five minutes remaining. Purdue clawed back with an 8-0 run, capped by a Smith layup that cut it to 65-63 with 1:28 left, but Conor Enright responded with a three-pointer. When Kaufman-Renn's layup made it 68-65 with 28 seconds remaining, Enright hit two free throws to ice it.
For Indiana, this is the program's first Quadrant 1 victory in seven tries under DeVries.
The Hoosiers came into the season with questions. New coaching staff. A roster built almost entirely through the transfer portal. Expectations tempered after Mike Woodson's departure. At 14-7 overall and 5-5 in Big Ten play, they're not setting the world on fire. But a win over a top-15 Purdue team at home? That's the kind of result that can turn a season around.
For Purdue, it's three straight losses now. They're still sitting at 17-4, but the cracks are showing. Its perimeter shooting has gone cold at the worst time, and teams are figuring out how to limit their inside presence.
Indiana has now beaten ranked Purdue teams in four of their last five matchups at Assembly Hall. That home-court advantage DeVries talked about when he took the job showed up Tuesday night.
"That's what [Assembly Hall] is," DeVries said postgame. "We love our hoops. And having that place full and rocking, that's a huge advantage for us as we continue to move forward."
The win also boosts Indiana's NCAA Tournament resume. A Quad 1 victory over a rival on your home court with the football national champions watching courtside? Take notice, selection committee.
Indiana now heads west for back-to-back road games at UCLA on Saturday and USC on Tuesday. Another tough stretch awaits, but the Hoosiers just proved they can hang with anyone when the energy is right.
Purdue visits Maryland on Sunday looking to snap its losing streak.
And not to look too far ahead, but the IU-Purdue rematch in West Lafayette is due up Feb. 20.