Concern about O.G. Anunoby casts pall over Indiana's buzzer-beating win

On a night when Indiana suffered a key injury and a stunning late-game collapse, James Blackmon made sure the Hoosiers’ woes didn’t deepen further.

Blackmon sank a pull-up right-wing 3-pointer at the buzzer on Wednesday night to send Indiana to a 78-75 win at Penn State.

The game-winning 3-pointer from Blackmon came after Indiana squandered a 14-point lead in the final 10 minutes and a seven-point lead with less than a minute to go. Penn State reeled off seven straight points prior to Blackmon’s shot, tying the game on a pair of Lamar Stevens free throws with just over four seconds to go.

Had Indiana failed to win at Penn State, it would have been the Hoosiers’ fifth loss in their last seven games. The Hoosiers instead notched their first true road win of the season to improve to 13-6 overall and 3-3 in the Big Ten.

Once Indiana’s celebration died down after Blackmon’s buzzer beater, the Hoosiers faced a sobering reality. They could be without standout forward O.G. Anunoby for awhile after he suffered what appeared to be a potentially significant knee injury.

Anunoby’s right leg buckled as he jostled for rebounding position underneath the rim late in the first half of Indiana’s game at Penn State. The 6-foot-8 sophomore crumbled to the floor in obvious pain before gingerly limping to the Indiana locker room with the help of a Hoosiers staffer and a teammate.

The severity of Anunoby’s injury is unclear at this time as Tom Crean told reporters after Wednesday’s game that he had “no update” on the forward’s condition. Minutes earlier, Crean nearly broke down on the Big Ten Network when describing the scene in Indiana’s halftime locker room after Anunoby’s injury.

If Anunoby is sidelined long, it would be a crippling blow to Indiana’s hopes of playing its way back into Big Ten title contention.

Hailed as a potential lottery pick before the season, Anunoby has flashed elite potential at both ends of the floor yet struggled with consistency. He entered play on Wednesday averaging 11.4 points and 5.6 points per game. Anunoby also is Indiana’s most versatile defender.

With forward Juwan Morgan also out with an unspecified foot or ankle injury, Indiana’s once-deep frontcourt got thin in a hurry. Thomas Bryant picked up the slack with 17 points and nine rebounds, while guards Blackmon and Ronald Johnson also added 17 points apiece.

Credit Indiana for weathering the absence of Morgan and Anunoby and beating an improving Penn State team on the road, but any celebration will be tempered until the Hoosiers know more about the severity of Anunoby’s injury.

Big as this win was, Indiana may have lost more than it gained.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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