Hoosiers give away Illinois game

For the IU men's basketball team, it's the one that got away.\nA home game, a halftime lead of seven, and the lead the entire game -- with the exception of the last three minutes -- made it look like no one but IU's ballgame to win.\nBut something went terribly wrong in the second half costing IU (11-8, 5-3 Big Ten) a 51-49 loss to Illinois (14-5, 4-3).\n"We missed a lot of open shots and shots around the basket that we normally make," junior guard Donald Perry said. "We had every opportunity to win. We had the opportunity, we just didn't do it."\nIU's leading scorer this season, sophomore guard Bracey Wright, started things out for the Hoosiers with a three-point basket just seconds into the game, but didn't score again until the second half. Wright finished with nine points -- four of which where from free throws.\nIllinois sophomore guard, Deron Williams, a former teammate of Wright's at The Colony High School in The Colony Texas, said they wanted to deny Wright the ball as much as possible and not give him open looks.\n"Just happens that he had a bad shooting day," Williams said of his former teammate.\nThe first four minutes of the game, Illinois was scoreless. The Hoosiers scored seven points in the first four minutes, thanks to Wright and senior forward A.J. Moye. \nTwelve minutes into play, the Fighting Illini had only three field goals. But junior forward, Roger Powell, Illinois' leading scorer for the game with 15 points, helped the Illini get back in the game and come within seven points of the Hoosiers at halftime, 27-20. \nIU tried to keep its composure in the second half, but only made 15.4 percent of its field goals.\nAfter halftime, the Hoosiers made only four field goals with the remainder of its points coming from free throws. \nMoye, the team leader in scoring with 14 points, scored IU's last field goal with 9:50 left in the game.\nEven Illinois' last basket came with 2:41 left on the clock. A jumper hit by junior center, Nick Smith, put the score at 49-51-- the last it would change all night.\nAfter that, the Hoosiers went on to miss four field goals until the 11 second mark when IU called a timeout.\nWith time winding down on the clock and the IU crowd on its feet, Wright took a three-point shot blocked by Smith with only five seconds left in the game.\n"At the end of the game, that's who we want shooting," Moye said of Wright. "That's our guy and that's the shot we wanted, but they anticipated it."\nAfter the missed shot and Illinois grabbing the rebound, Strickland was forced to foul Illinois sophomore guard Dee Brown to get IU the ball back.\nIf Brown made his free throw, IU would have to make a trey to tie the game. So instead, when Brown missed it, the Hoosiers were given three seconds and one more chance to either walk off with a victory or send the game into overtime.\nBut the three seconds left on the clock weren't enough for IU, and the Illinois defense stopped the Hoosiers on their own court.\n"You have to put teams away when you have the chance," Moye said. "And we had a chance at the 18, 17 minute mark in the second half and we just didn't do it."\n-- Contact staff writer Natalie A. Trout at natrout@indiana.edu.