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BLOOMINGTON – Tom Pritchard had started every game during his nearly 1 1/2 seasons at Indiana.
Until Saturday.
The sophomore forward adapted well to the switch. Pritchard had eight points and six rebounds in Indiana’s 81-58 victory over North Carolina Central in front of 11,010 fans at Assembly Hall.
“I feel comfortable coming off the bench if that’s what (coach Tom Crean) wants me to do,” Pritchard said. “That’s something I’ve really been working on, just being comfortable this year. I just have to continue to work hard and push at it and hopefully it will show up in games.”
Freshman Jordan Hulls also provided a spark off the bench with five points, seven rebounds and eight assists as the Hoosiers improved to 5-5.
“We’ve been working real hard in practice with rebounding. I just tried to do my part,” Hulls said. “The big guys were blocking out and that lets the guards go in and crash the boards. I was just trying to be the guy to go get the rebounds.”
Maurice Creek continues to be a scoring force for IU. The freshman led all players with 29 points. He had 31 points on Dec. 12 against Kentucky.
Creek got hot in the second half. Twenty of his points came after halftime.
“I was into it, but (Crean) said he wanted more, so I gave him more,” Creek said. “Defense is one of the key ways for me and everybody to score, so we all just picked up in the second half and got plays.”
Christian Watford added 11 points. Derek Elston, who got the starting nod over Pritchard, had seven points.
C.J. Wilkerson scored 22 points to lead North Carolina Central. The Eagles (2-9) stuck around for a half, trailing 36-33.
Creek took over in the final 20 minutes. He corralled a high behind the back pass from Hulls, paused and then made a three-pointer to give IU a 58-42 lead with 13:19 to go.
Pritchard received large ovations from the crowd a couple of times midway through the second half. First, he made a dunk while getting fouled by Nick Chasten, pushing the lead to 65-47. Moments later, Pritchard made a nice pass to a cutting Creek, who made a layup.
“He responded to a challenge,” Crean said. “That’s what we need from him. But we need to leave the challenge in the locker room and let him come out and he needs to bring that consistency. That’s what we’re going to need from him as we move forward through the rest of the games this month and as we go into the Big Ten.”
