Wildcats win 1st game in Assembly Hall

IU coach Tom Crean has cited the Hoosiers’ youth as a reason for the unpredictability they display from game to game. 

But Wednesday night IU radically changed in the middle of the first half. 

Northwestern (15-11, 6-9) notched its first-ever victory in Assembly Hall, dominating IU (6-21, 1-14) 75-53.  

While always fighting to prevent it, Crean said he has dreaded a performance like Wednesday’s.  

“I’ll never accept it, and I never have,” Crean said. “But this was bound to happen at some point with this team.”

The Wildcats overcame a strong Hoosier start and benefited from IU going an atrocious 3-of-21 from behind the arc.

“They had some pretty good looks on their shots and missed them,” Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. “And we had some looks and knocked them down.”

Conversely, Carmody’s crew caught fire from three in the second half, draining six of seven. The Wildcats were led by senior Craig Moore.

Moore went 3-of-3 from behind the arc in the second half, scoring 17 points and taunting the Hoosiers when going back on defense en route to leading five Northwestern players in double digits. 

The start of the game gave no indication that Northwestern would walk out of Bloomington with a victory at all, much less a blowout win. 

The Hoosiers started off 6-of-8 from the floor and had five assists and one turnover, easily penetrating the Wildcats’ 1-3-1 zone defense. 

Then IU suddenly couldn’t crack the zone. The Hoosiers started to settle for long jump shots rarely resulting in baskets. 

Crean gave credit to Northwestern’s defense, but said ultimately his team’s lack of aggressiveness is what left them so stagnant offensively.

Unlike the first time IU played Northwestern and scored 75 points, the Hoosier post players weren’t calling for the ball enough. 

“We just weren’t physical enough,” Crean said. “We didn’t demand the ball enough, and that’s the reason we had success with it the first time.”

Making matters worse for IU, the Wildcats were unconscious on the offensive, back-cutting the Hoosiers and draining deep three-pointers.

Freshman Nick Williams said the team needs to stop worrying so much offensively and focus more on hard-nosed defense. 

“In the second half we had too many letdowns,” Williams said. “I think they scored on eight or nine straight possessions, and we just can’t have that. We have to dig down deep and just be gritty with every possession. I know we can play better defense.” 

But in the end, no matter how good of a defensive game IU had, its 14.3 three-point percentage and 28.6 free-throw percentage would have made it difficult for the Hoosiers to win. 

Senior Kyle Taber – who set a career-high in scoring for the second consecutive game with 12 points – thinks that both three-point and free-throw shooting can be infectious, for better or worse. 

“It seems like sometimes it’s contagious,” Taber said. “I think it’s the same thing with free throws.”