IU beats Penn State 75-58, advances to second round of Big Ten Tournament

The IU basketball team earned its first win in postseason play with IU Coach Tom Crean on Thursday, but that win might be overshadowed by a potential loss.

Senior guard Verdell Jones III left the game with 5:48 remaining in the first half after he went to the floor, grasping his right knee.

The injury overshadowed No. 15 IU (25-7) ending a six-game Big Ten Tournament losing streak thanks to a 75-58 victory against Penn State (12-20) at Bankers Life FieldHouse in Indianapolis.

An IU spokesperson said Jones suffered a sprained right knee.

“He’s being evaluated now,” Crean said. “I was hopeful that when he went down it wasn’t as significant, but I’m going to keep holding out that hope, but I don’t obviously feel good about that.”

The injury came on a noncontact play as Jones lead an IU fast break and made a jump stop before falling to the ground in pain.

“You want to win, which we did,” Crean said. “You want to play well, but you want to do it with your whole team, and we didn’t get that opportunity today. But these guys did an excellent job of playing through it, playing composed.”

How long Jones will be out remains to be seen, but Thursday, the team showed the resolve it needed without its senior captain.

IU led 24-21 when Jones headed to the locker room and went on a quick 7-0 run to take its first double-digit lead of the game.

“Verdell has put so much into this program, so we knew when we saw him go down and out of the game, we had to step up for him,” junior guard Jordan Hulls said.

Hulls and freshman forward Cody Zeller scored the team’s first 22 points Thursday, with Hulls leading the way with a team-high 20 points.

Just like they did during the team’s past meeting in Bloomington, the Nittany Lions hung around in the first half and were only down 38-32 at halftime.

After the teams traded baskets to start the second half, IU went on a 14-0 run and broke open a lead that would never be less than 14 points the rest of the way.

“I think our defense picked up in that period,” Zeller said. “Our defense kind of led into our offense. That’s when we’re most successful, when we are defending and rebounding.”

The Hoosiers had three players with 10 rebounds apiece and outrebounded the Nittany Lions 45-29.

For the first time this season, both Zeller and junior forward Christian Watford had a double-double.

Sophomore guard Victor Oladipo made it three players in double-figure rebounds for the Hoosiers with a career-high 10 boards.

“I think the fact that we had three guys in double figures says a lot about the tenacity our guys played with,” Crean said.

Oladipo was one of many defenders IU threw at the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer, Tim Frazier.

Not only does Frazier lead the Big Ten in minutes played, but he also leads the conference in assists per game.

After he scored 19 points in the first half, the Hoosiers slowed the All-Big Ten First Team performer to a 2-of-10 effort in the second half.

“We just tried to take away a lot of his catches, make things difficult for him and get him out of his rhythm,” Watford said.

With the win, the Hoosiers achieved their first Big Ten Tournament victory since 2006 and will now turn their attention to a Friday afternoon quarterfinal matchup with the Wisconsin Badgers.

The past three seasons, the Hoosiers have seen their season end Thursday of the Big Ten Tournament, but now they will get a chance to avenge a loss from earlier this season in trying to make it to the weekend.

“It’s been a long time coming, so we’re going to enjoy this, but we know we’ve got to get ready for Wisconsin next,” Watford said.