IU defeats Georgetown in overtime

On Monday, against Georgia, IU trailed in the second half for the first time all season.

Tuesday, against Georgetown, brought an even closer call.

Georgetown forward Otto Porter tied the game at 64 on a jump shot with six seconds left in regulation, forcing overtime before IU prevailed 82-72 to win the Progressive Legends Classic Tuesday evening at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“This was going to be an epic battle, and we hadn’t been in a lot of those in November,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “We were ready for one, and so was Georgetown.”

The Hoosiers scored the first six points of the overtime period to take a commanding lead as they pulled away, eventually earning their biggest lead of the game on a three-pointer by freshman guard Kevin 'Yogi' Ferrell that narrowly beat the shot clock.

“When I was coming off, I heard one of the coaches say ‘shoot it,’” Ferrell said. “I knew the time was running down. I didn’t have no time it, so I knew coming off that screen I had to pull, and I shot it.”

The run continued on a theme of scoring sprees that kept the team in the game in both halves even before the extra time.

IU trailed during much of the early going in the first half, at one point down 23-18. Following that moment, though, the Hoosiers put together a 15-3 run - including a quick pair of three-point shots by senior forward Christian Watford - to take a lead despite a Hoya rally late in the half.

They did not relinquish it until more than eight minutes into the second period.

Shortly after Georgetown took its biggest lead of the second half, 49-45 with 10:31 remaining on the clock, IU embarked on another scoring spree, this one a 14-2 run that gave IU the lead until Georgetown snagged the tie with six seconds to go.

Sophomore forward Cody Zeller bounced back after a sub-par performance on Monday to lead IU with 17 points along with senior guard Jordan Hulls, the tournament MVP. Five Hoosiers reached double digits in scoring.

“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Zeller said. “You have bad games, just naturally being a basketball player. You just try to come back, working hard, and do whatever it takes for the team to win.”

Markel Starks had 20 points to pace the Hoyas before fouling out.

Both teams were justifiably trigger-happy in the first half, especially early on. IU was 6 for 10 while Georgetown went 8 of 14. In the second half, though, neither team relied on the long ball as much, despite continued efficiency.

Appeal rulings were not handed down Tuesday in the NCAA cases of freshmen center Peter Jurkin and forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea and neither played. The two players did not originally make the trip with the team, but when it became apparent that appeals could happen soon, they flew up before IU's Monday game.

“As we get deeper, as we get more frontline guys back, that will help us, but there’s nothing we can do about that right now,” Crean said. “Our guys just went out and played a high level team in a high level way.”