Yogi Ferrell dropped his head and pulled his IU ?jersey over his face.
The junior guard’s free throw attempt — one that would have tied IU with Michigan State with two seconds left — had missed. The ball bounced high off the right iron and fell into the hands of Michigan State’s Marvin Clark.
His first free throw attempt almost missed but bounced in. The second bounced out and the Hoosiers fell to the Spartans ?74-72.
“I guess the basketball gods felt good for me for that first free throw, and then the second one just rolled out,” Ferrell said. “So I’m pretty disappointed missing the second one, but it happens.”
It was the third time in the conference season the game rested squarely on Ferrell’s shoulders. All three times — against Maryland, Purdue and now Michigan State — he failed to convert late.
The Hoosiers (19-12, 9-9) clawed their way back into the game in the final minutes with a little help from the Spartans (21-10, 12-6) missing 7-of-17 free throws in the second half.
It gave Ferrell a chance to force overtime from the line that ultimately bounced away.
It’s a situation Ferrell said he’d want again at next week’s Big Ten Tournament. IU Coach Tom Crean said Ferrell is one of “the greatest winners” he’s ever coached.
But that’s what makes it that much harder for Ferrell, twice a state champion in high school. He wants to be in situations with the team on his back and the table set for the heroics.
Saturday, it wasn’t meant to be.
“He hurts,” Crean said. “My shirt is drenched from holding onto him.”
Ferrell would not have been in a situation to force overtime had it not been for a late game surge.
IU made a surge from being down 11 with 3:50 left by forcing Michigan State, the Big Ten’s worst free-throw shooting team, to beat the Hoosiers at the line in the closing minutes. That strategy worked, giving IU two chances to tie the game with less than 15 seconds left.
Crean said he was proud of the way his players fought back in the face of adversity. Freshman guard James Blackmon Jr., however, was less pleased.
He said the run came too late.
“I feel like we all tried to turn it on too late,” Blackmon said. “We turned it on and made that run, but we should have just picked it up from the start.”
Crean credited Michigan State’s Travis Trice for leading the Spartans through lulls in the offense. He made eight of his nine free throw attempts in the ?second half.
“He made some big plays,” Crean said. “He’s really good. Really good.”
The loss was IU’s eighth in the last 12 games. Ferrell’s team-high 21 points weren’t enough to stop the Hoosiers from entering the Big Ten Tournament in a three-game losing streak.
With IU slipping further and further down in the eyes of NCAA Tournament bracketologists, the Hoosiers now say their focus is on the Big Ten Tournament, where a win or two would go a long way toward salvaging a Tournament bid.
“Right now, we’re just working and preparing for the Big Ten Tournament,” Ferrell said. “We’re ready to leave Thursday for Chicago. We’re not looking to see where we stand for the NCAA Tournament right now, just trying to get into the Big Ten Tournament and win a couple games there.”
