IU moves to 9-0 after trampling No. 1 Kentucky

The same week IU students camping outside Assembly Hall were asked to leave, they were more than welcome to stay a little longer inside the arena on Dec. 10, thanks to Christian Watford.

After watching a double-digit second half lead wilt away, it was junior forward Watford who twice regained the advantage for the Hoosiers in the game’s waning minutes.

Down by two with 5.6 seconds remaining, senior guard Verdell Jones III penetrated the arc and kicked the ball back out to Watford on the left wing, who then hit the game-winning three-pointer as time expired, giving the Hoosiers (9-0) a 73-72 win against the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats (8-1).

“When I got the ball out, I knew (Watford) was going to be sprinting down as the trail man,” Jones said. “I just drove it, and he yelled, ‘V, V.’ I just turned around and passed it to him, and the rest is history.”

A sold-out Assembly Hall crowd of 17,472 fans watched the game become history, as IU beat a No. 1 ranked team for the first time since knocking off Duke in the 2002 Sweet Sixteen.

For much of the early season, Jones and Watford have been pushed by the bench play of sophomore forward Will Sheehey and junior forward Derek Elston.

In perhaps the program’s most anticipated game under Crean, it was the veterans who hit the first and last shots of the night for the Hoosiers.

“Verdell did a tremendous job of finding him, and then ... the one vivid image is how picture-perfect that shot was,” Crean said. “(Christian) stayed in his shot. He didn’t fade. He didn’t leg kick. It was a picture-perfect form. I’m so happy for him.”

Just a minute earlier, Watford’s spin-move layup had regained the lead at 70-69 after Kentucky had its first advantage since the 18:00 mark of the second half.

The Wildcats answered with a layup by guard Marquis Teague and a free throw from guard Doron Lamb before the shot by Watford ushered a sea of red onto Branch
McCracken Court.

“I haven’t felt anything like that,” Watford said. “That was probably the most memorable moment of my life. It’s the biggest shot, definitely, of my career.”

The shot by Watford came after Lamb, an 89 percent foul shooter, hit 1-of-2 foul shots.
IU inbounded the ball following Lamb’s successful free throw and, despite having two fouls to give, Kentucky was not successful in fouling Jones when he brought the ball down the floor.

“We were fouling,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said. “We were going to foul them. We had two fouls to use, so the whole timeout was about fouling. Marquis (Teague) tried to foul, and they didn’t call it. No one fouled.”

That allowed Watford to knock down the first game-winning 3-point field goal at the buzzer IU has had since Kirk Haston hit one from the opposite wing to defeat No. 1 Michigan State on Jan. 7, 2001.

Overshadowed by his game-high 20 points was Watford’s defensive effort against Kentucky’s leading scorer Terrence Jones. Watford neutralized the 6-foot-9-inch, 252-pound Jones to four points, one rebound and six turnovers in 28 minutes.

Watford was the lone Hoosier to score during the game’s final 7:53. to help IU overcome a near five-minute scoring drought in the second half.

“We knew that we had some matchup problems, but we also felt they might have one with (Watford), and he needed to be able to utilize that a lot of different ways,” Crean said. “He made plays in the post. He made plays on the glass, and he made four threes. You can’t win games like this without your best players really bringing it, and he did.”

Having the chance to knock off a No. 1 team was no easy task for the Hoosiers as Calipari brought in a handful of McDonald’s All-Americans to face an IU roster with just one.
Crean said the Hoosiers could not mirror Kentucky’s length, but they did overcome early season woes on the glass to outrebound the Wildcats 14-10 on the offensive end.

Controlling Kentucky’s runs was another important factor for Crean as the Wildcats struck late in the first half with a 7-0 spurt before intermission.

Kentucky once again dug itself out of a deficit in the second half as it fell behind by 10 before Indiana native Teague paced the Wildcats down the stretch, scoring all 15 of his points following halftime.

“You have to close a team like Kentucky out,” Crean said. “You have to continue to be really good on both ends of the floor. It was not a textbook way to close a game, but it really came down to who had the ball last, and our guys never wavered throughout
the game.”

In the last three years, IU has lost to Kentucky by an average of 18 points. For the five senior players who joined the mob of students on the court, a 9-0 start to their final campaign is far from the 6-25 pains they suffered as freshmen.

“We went through some trying years, but we stayed with it,” Jones said. “I’m particularly proud of our senior class. It could have been easy for us to transfer, leave or just quit, but we stuck with it, and I feel like the fruit of our labor is starting to pay off.”