IU wins season-opener 100-72

Largely fueled by 55 free throws stemming from 36 personal fouls by Chicago State, the IU men’s basketball team pulled off the team’s first win of the season, defeating the Cougars 100-72 Friday night at Assembly Hall.
 
Chicago State won the tipoff but both teams missed several buckets to start the contest until freshman forward Noah Vonleh landed a turnaround lay-in for the game’s first points.
 
He then followed with another bucket the next trip down and made his first free throw in both the regular season and exhibition season. He went 0-of-8 in two exhibition games.
 
Early, Chicago State hung around simply with their volume of shot attempts, shooting 4-of-20 to IU’s 5-of-12, but with a few runs, the Hoosiers were able to push away.
 
Indiana finished the half shooting 14-of-30 from the field, while Chicago State shot just 9-of-39 for a lowly 23 percent from the floor.
 
Sophomore Jeremy Hollowell got the start in the backcourt with fellow sophomore Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell and led the Hoosiers with 10 points at halftime. Vonleh led the Hoosiers in rebounds with 11 to go along with five points.
 
Ferrell scored eight points, followed by senior forward Will Sheehey with seven and freshman forward Troy Williams with five.
 
It was freshman forward Devin Davis who got the Hoosiers started in the second half, off a coast-to-coast layup that began with a defensive rebound with 18 minutes and 17 seconds left in the half.
 
The Hoosiers began the half on an 8-1 run, but the Cougars’ shooting briefly improved during the middle of the second half, where they went on a 10-4 run over less than two minutes to pull the lead under 20.
 
But the Hoosiers got into the double-bonus with 13 minutes and eight seconds left in the game, and on a night where the team went 45-of-55 from the line, there was no comeback in sight.
 
Hollowell led the team with a career-high 16 points to go along with four rebounds and a career-high four blocks.
 
Williams followed with 13 points, and Vonleh and and Ferrell each dished in 11. Vonleh also pulled down 14 boards for the team’s lone double-double.

-- Nathan Brown