3s bury Hoosiers

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ­– Similar to the blowout at Kentucky, the Hoosiers were all but finished moments into their contest at Illinois, falling behind 21-2 just seven minutes into the game, en route to a 76-45 shellacking.

But unlike the highlight reel after highlight reel of dunks the Wildcats used to humiliate the Hoosiers, the Illini instead took advantage of the 3-point line.

In total, Illinois went 13-of-25 from 3-pointers, nine of those in the first half.    

“You always do pretty good when you make shots,” Illinois senior Trent Meacham said.

Meacham led the Illini’s 3-point attack with seven total – five in the first half.

IU freshman Nick Williams said Illinois is a great shooting team but added a big reason for its productivity was because of a poor defensive effort from the Hoosiers.    

“I felt like they couldn’t miss,” Williams said. “And it was because we didn’t challenge their shots, and we didn’t follow the game plan.”

IU coach Tom Crean said part of the strategy was to play back on Illini guards Meacham, senior Chester Frazier and sophomore Demetri McCamey, a tandem who through two games in the Big Ten season had 34 assists and just two turnovers.

Crean said the team couldn’t afford to overplay them, but playing off helped allow the Illini to get open jumpers.

“It was not going to be in our best interest to come out and chase them around and allow them open passes to the basket,” Crean said. “We weren’t aggressive enough and they got confidence.”

Meacham said his team’s ability to rotate the ball around resulted in the many open 3-point looks the team had and negated the different types of defensive looks the Hoosiers threw at Illinois.

“We pushed the ball and we moved, and we were able to get some good shots and knock them down and we just found the hot hand,” Meacham said. “We do that no matter what defense teams are playing. It’s going to be tough.”

Freshman Verdell Jones, who played in front of his hometown, agreed with Crean. He said IU had a good game plan heading into Saturday but didn’t match Illinois’ intensity.
“We had all the scouting reports down and everything,” Jones said. “But we came out and lacked energy.”

When junior Devan Dumes left the game with an injured ankle, Williams took it upon himself to be more assertive, prompting Crean to yell at his bench, wanting effort from the entire team.

Williams said he thinks he can step up as the season progresses and said others on his team will as well to help stop getting crushed on the road.

“Of course we’re tired of losing,” Williams said. “And I think it hurts more because we know we could’ve played better.”