Watford stays hot against OSU

During his career at IU, senior guard Jordan Hulls has been criticized several times for uneasily putting up 3-pointers when he has an open look.

This season, Hulls has rocketed into the top five in the country in shooting from beyond the arc. But  Sunday at Ohio State, he launched several deep balls from well behind the 3-point line, some with multiple men in his face, to no avail.

In the first half, as the Hoosiers battled with the Buckeyes to gain control of the important conference game, Hulls failed to pull through in his normal fashion, shooting just 1-of-7 from beyond the arc.

He missed two looks from beyond the arc early before clanking three attempts in just over two minutes in the middle of the first half.

When it mattered, fellow senior Christian Watford had the hot hand and was there to lead or cap off several Hoosier runs.

With the help of the deep ball, No. 1 IU to not only took control of Sunday’s game but also put away the No. 10 Buckeyes for good in the 81-68 victory in Columbus, Ohio.

After Hulls missed his third 3-pointer in a short stint, the Hoosiers found themselves behind 13-11 after jumping out to an 11-4 lead early in the half.

Ohio State’s Deshaun Thomas proceeded to hit two 3-pointers during a 9-0 Buckeye run to give his team a boost, but as the Hoosiers struggled to find an offensive rhythm, Watford was there.

He caught a pass from freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, took his signature one step and sailed it through to end the 4:38 IU scoring drought.

Later in the half, with his team up by three, Watford doubled IU’s lead with another shot from behind the arc. IU’s lead would never dip below four points for the remainder of the game.

Watford said he knew it was important for him to step up and hit key shots Sunday, especially when the rest of his teammates weren’t feeling it from long range, shooting just 3-of-13 outside of Watford.

“They look for me,” Watford said. “When those guys are not hitting, they look for me ’cause I just had the hot hand tonight. That’s what we do. I got lost in the game and would trail and spot up.”

Since the start of conference play, Watford has seemed to be in a rhythm from beyond the arc, shooting 25-of-47 (53.2 percent) against Big Ten opponents, nearly five percentage points better than his season average of 48.8 percent.

In the second half, much like in the loss to Illinois, the Buckeyes came out of the locker room quickly, cutting IU’s lead down to four points less than four minutes into the half.

The Hoosiers began a run of their own, pushing the lead back into double digits as the Buckeyes tried to keep the game within a couple possessions.

It was Watford, though, who gave IU its biggest lead of the game at 62-46 with 9:30 left in the half, a mark IU didn’t hit in the second half against Illinois.

Watford said capping off that run with a 3-pointer and continuing to extend his team’s lead really made a difference in fending off the Buckeyes.

“We knew they were going to make runs,” Watford said. “They were at home. They have their crowd and stuff. We just wanted to weather the storm.”