IU wins exhibition 83-68

After a struggling first half from the field and the free throw line, the IU men’s basketball team picked it up in the second half to pull away from the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles, taking the exhibition victory 83-68 Saturday evening at Assembly Hall.

Sophomore guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell led the Hoosiers with a career-high 20 points, including a career-high six 3-pointers and a 2-of-2 night from the charity stripe.

In the first half, IU had several spurts of scoring, including an eight-point run to go up 8-2 early, but the Hoosiers shot just 14-of-36 from the field to allow the Screaming Eagles to stay in the hunt early.

Ferrell led the Hoosiers early with 14 points in the first half, including shooting 4-of-4 from beyond the 3-point line.

Seven Hoosiers made it to the charity stripe, but only four connected for a team total of 6-of-14 from the free throw line.

Freshman forward Troy Williams followed Ferrell with seven points, including a break-away one-handed slam at the end of the half as time expired to get IU’s lead back up to nine points.

In the second half, USI started with five-straight points to cut IU’s lead to four, but freshman center Noah Vonleh hit his first trey as a Hoosier to expand IU’s lead back to seven.

But the Screaming Eagles kept fighting back. Manny Ogunfolu’s jumper with 16:54 left in the game cut the lead to just two points at 42-40, but that’s as close as his team would get.

The Hoosiers were never able to blow the game open, but until the final few minutes, they couldn’t manage enough consistent offense to get the lead past 13 points.

Sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell was just one point shy of his career high with 13 points to go along with three rebounds, two assists and a steal. Also in double figures were Williams – who added 10 rebounds for a double-double – and senior forward Will Sheehey who both had 10 points.

- Nathan Brown