MINNEAPOLIS – If his game-winning putback with five seconds left gave Indiana fans at least one memorable March moment Thursday, Anthony Leal’s heroics also provided him some badly needed catharsis.

Not from the demands of a sometimes-frustrating season, one that will carry on at least to Friday after the Hoosiers’ 61-59 win in the second round of the Big Ten tournament. Nor the satisfaction of success, for a player whose coach calls him “a true pro” for the sheer fact that Leal doesn’t play as much as a senior might, and never is that reflected in his effort, habits or behavior.

When Leal walked to the microphone on IU’s senior night last weekend, he did so carrying a heavy emotional burden — the unexpected death of a lifelong friend just days prior. He still carried it, understandably, here in Minneapolis.

Leal had been with him “a couple hours” before he died.

DOYEL: Anthony Leal is rewriting the story of his career, and IU is rewriting story of its season

“Senior night was emotional for me, just really the whole week,” Leal said from Indiana’s locker room Thursday. “I’m just glad we were able to get the win, and I believe he’s still out there looking after me.”

Thursday continued the best run of what until roughly three weeks ago had been, results-wise, a difficult season for Indiana (19-13).

Heavy losses to the likes of Purdue, Nebraska and Thursday’s opponent, Penn State, left fans restless. The Hoosiers, to hear themselves describe their own journey now, were too often the kind of team that buckled under adversity.

Turns out, they were learning.

Their education started with an eight-point loss Jan. 27 at Illinois. Short-handed, IU still had its host tied inside the game’s final two minutes in Champaign. There, the Hoosiers resolved not to fold. There, they determined to stay connected, to fight as one.

And they lost, 70-62.

“Coming down the stretch at Illinois earlier in the season, we really felt like we could win that one, but we didn't make the right plays,” Leal said. “From that point forward, I feel like we've had the right mindset going into the final six, eight minutes of the game that it's winning time.

“We're confident in each other.”

The road did not smooth out perfectly from there. But there were moments when collective toughness bled through. Like a narrow win at home to Iowa the following midweek, or an 18-point comeback at Ohio State the week after that during which cameras caught Leal in a huddle very clearly telling his teammates, “We’re gonna win this (expletive) game.”

On that night, as with this one, Leal sank what turned out to be the game-winning basket.

But what spoke most of his contributions in Columbus was the same thing that’s meant so much down the stretch here, when four of these five-consecutive wins have come by five or fewer points.

Leal left Bloomington South his storied high school program’s all-time leading scorer, and the 2020 IndyStar Mr. Basketball. He played early and often in purple and white, but there have been no hometown discounts in college.

Minutes came sparingly across Leal’s first three seasons. Even this winter, he only appeared in seven of the Hoosiers’ first 19 games. For much of their three years together, Leal’s own coach has defined Leal’s value as a player by the inverse relationship between his minutes in games, and his impact everywhere the spotlight doesn’t shine on a college basketball player.

“Coming from the NBA, the 34 years I spent there, we call that a pro. A true pro,” IU coach Mike Woodson said. “He has hung in there with me, because he hasn’t played a whole lot. But in practice, he comes to work every day and he knows everything we’re doing on both sides of the ball.”

Lately, that’s changed.

Leal has seen double-digit minutes in each of the past 13 games, by orders of magnitude the largest rotation role of his career. He’s responded with key performances, like that winner at Ohio State, and he’s brought a measure of steady leadership already lining him up to succeed Xavier Johnson as captain alongside roommate Trey Galloway next season.

Thursday, Leal’s eight points and four rebounds (across 24 minutes) blended into a workmanlike backcourt performance. The Hoosiers’ guards weren’t perfect, but against a team that had beaten them twice during the regular season, they refused to budge.

Ace Baldwin, Penn State’s do-everything point guard, finished Thursday with six assists and five rebounds, but also missed 12 of his 15 shots. That disrupted the Nittany Lions (16-17) to the tune of just 16 made field goals in 40 minutes and, crucially, a 7-of-27 performance behind the 3-point line they’d made such efficient use of in their wins against Indiana earlier this season.

“The first two times we played Penn State, we dropped (ball-screen coverages), and they just dissected everything that we did,” Woodson said. “The second time we played them we tried to trap. They made nine 3s in one game and 12 in the next game. We just tried to stay as close to Baldwin as we could. Our bigs were more up where he actually saw bodies.

“We guarded the 3-point line extremely well.”

All of which set the stage for Leal’s big moment.

Leal crashed the offensive glass thinking about defensive principles. In late-game situations, with tired legs and tired minds, players can sometimes get stuck watching the shot and think less about the rebound. So often, coaches impressed upon Leal the need to be sharp, to make sure any last-second shot attempt gone wide was cleared from the defensive boards. This time, he turned it around — anticipating Penn State defenders might switch off, just for a moment, Leal swooped in, grabbing the carom and cleanly dropping it back through the net.

A moment born of the kinds of details Woodson trusts his South grad to command like perhaps no other player on his team.

“He’s come in and given us a helluva lift,” Woodson said. “Tonight, he hits the biggest shot of his college career. That’s beautiful for him.”

For Leal, it was something more fundamental, more visceral, than just beautiful. It was a release.

When he stepped to that microphone on senior day, it was a relief to know he would not be saying goodbye, that he would be able to keep going. When he dropped that putback in Thursday, he might have felt the same. Just keep going. Like his friend would have wanted.

“It’s been difficult, you know. Obviously, dealing with loss is hard, especially the loss of young people,” he said. “For me, it’s just been leaning a lot on my friends and family, and this team’s been really great in supporting me, in the struggle that is losing a loved one, or someone very dear to me.

“It’s been a very emotional few days, but I know he’d want me to be out here playing as hard as I can and doing what I do, so that’s what I’m going to keep doing.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball's Anthony Leal hits game-winner vs Penn State