Indiana began the season with 12 consecutive victories.But coach Tom Crean said IU is a better team now than they were after capturing that 12th straight victory Dec. 22 against Maryland-Baltimore County.The No.EVANSTON, Ill. – The allotted seconds had expired during an Indiana timeout less than five minutes into Sunday’s game with Northwestern.
The Hoosiers stayed huddled, trying to figure out a way to slow down the Wildcats. Finally, official Ed Hightower came over to break up the meeting.
Whatever coach Tom Crean and IU attempted to come up with didn’t work. Northwestern used hot shooting to torch the Hoosiers 78-61 in front of 8,117 fans at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The Wildcats (16-7, 5-6 Big Ten) made 10 three-pointers and shot 52.1 percent from the floor, handing the Hoosiers (9-13, 3-7) their fourth straight loss.
“We put ourselves in a hole at the very beginning of the game without getting enough pressure on the ball, getting enough pressure on the three-point shooters, and some things didn’t go right for us offensively,” Crean said.
“We didn’t come down and get stops on them, and we played an uphill-battle game the rest of the way.”
Six of the 10 three-pointers came in the first half.
“We did not do a good job early on of understanding how good a job they do from the three-point line,” Crean said. “We had our hands in their chins rather than our hands in their faces.”
Northwestern shot 59.1 percent before halftime. The Wildcats have won three consecutive meetings with IU for the first time since taking five in a row in 1930-1933.
“(The three-point shooting) stretches things out,” Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. “After a while, we were able to throw it down to Luka (Mirkovic) and he did some things in there. That balance inside and out was really important.”
IU already trailed 10-2 when Crean called the timeout with 15:29 remaining in the first half.
Things didn’t get much better.
Five players scored in double figures for Northwestern. John Shurna led the way with 16 points, including five three-pointers.
Mirkovic scored 14 points, and Jeremy Nash had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
“They can shoot one to five, so we had to play honest,” Indiana sophomore guard Verdell Jones III said. “They were always moving and setting screens and going back door. We just weren’t discipline enough.”
Jones finished with a career-high 28 points. Christian Watford added 16 points. IU shot 35.3 percent from the floor and was 2 of 17 on three-pointers.
The Hoosiers got within 40-31 on a Jones’ jumper to start the second half. The Wildcats scored the next eight points and held on to the double-digit advantage the rest of the way.
“We just weren’t aggressive enough at the start of the game,” Crean said. “We’re not good enough to take body blows early on and then decide, OK, now we’re really going to come out and put the pressure on. We have to be a hard-charging, hard-driving 40-minute team.”
