On Jan. 5 in Assembly Hall, IU couldn’t take care of the ball — but the Hoosiers kept that from becoming the story when they pulled out a 1-point win against Wisconsin.
Tuesday night, however, IU wasn’t able make up for its 19 turnovers, and the Badgers defeated the Hoosiers 82-79 in overtime.
The win streak ends at 12, leaving Iowa the only remaining undefeated team in the Big Ten and marking the first time IU has lost since Dec. 2, when it fell to then-No. 7 Duke.
“We turned the ball over too many times, but all things considered, I’m proud of them,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “At the same time, there were too many mistakes made for us to win the game.”
Despite a sloppy second half, the Hoosiers were able to keep it close until the end. Then, down by one with 1:13 to play, senior guard Yogi Ferrell hit a three to give IU its first lead since the 10:53 mark of the second half.
When Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes made two free throws to tie it, Ferrell scored a layup off a backdoor cut on the other end with just 23 seconds left.
Hayes, who scored a game-high 31 points Tuesday night, made two more free throws with nine seconds remaining to force overtime.
The Hoosiers struggled all night to find an answer for the Wisconsin star.
In the final period, Hayes closed the game out shooting a perfect 6-of-6 from the line.
“Hayes is one of the most incredibly gifted passers in college basketball,” Crean said. “He didn’t need to do a lot of passing tonight with the time spent at the foul line.”
A lot of the things IU had done well over the past two months weren’t present in the Kohl Center on Tuesday night. The defense, the movement and spacing on offense, ball security — it wasn’t the same.
And on the floor, that led to a stagnant IU offense at times and too many turnovers.
After ending the first half on a 7-0 run to pull within one point at halftime, the Hoosiers immediately gave up the momentum after the break. They turned the ball over four times before putting any points on the board.
Ferrell, junior forward Troy Williams and freshman center Thomas Bryant combined for 61 points, while no other player scored more than five. Players like senior forward Max Bielfeldt and freshman forward OG Anunoby, who have been helping IU off the bench in recent games, each scored just a pair of points.
Compared to Wisconsin’s 37 attempted free throws, IU was limited to 18.
And the long-range shots weren’t falling.
Three-pointers have been a big part of the Hoosiers’ success — and contributed to a few blowout wins at home recently. But against the Badgers, they were just 7-of-16 from beyond the arc.
Maybe the lone bright spot for the Hoosiers was Ferrell.
He had five of those 3-pointers. He scored 30 points and grabbed six first-half rebounds. Most importantly, he kept his team in the game.
For as long as he could, at least.
“We did some good things,” Crean said. “But we also did some costly things.”
