Near the end of the first half Saturday night, junior forward Collin Hartman missed a wide-open 3-pointer. But because he was so wide-open when the ball bounced off the rim to his side of the court, he was able to punch it to sophomore guard Robert Johnson for another wide-open 3-point attempt.
Johnson would make his shot to extend an already large first-half lead against McNeese State in a 105-60 win in Assembly Hall. IU finished the first half shooting 7-of-13 from behind the arc.
“It was ball movement,” sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr. said. “Our whole team was moving the ball well and that’s something we said at halftime we should keep doing.”
The Hoosiers finished Saturday night making 13 of their 28 3-point attempts, eight of which were without a defender anywhere near the shooter.
The open shots came in a variety of ways. Some were started with an IU guard like senior Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell driving toward the basket and kicking it out to an open shooter.
With about eight minutes left in the first half, Ferrell was dribbling along the baseline. He was drawing a crowd of defenders, which left his teammates open.
One of those teammates was Blackmon Jr., who was wide open in the corner. He made the shot without any defender close.
Others came in transition, like when Ferrell threw a half-court pass to senior guard Nick Zeisloft in the corner.
“We had no answer once they started raining threes,” McNeese State Coach Dave Simmons said. “They got the ball out so quick in the transition game and pretty much beat us down the floor and shot open shots.”
One of IU’s first 3-pointers of the game came in transition. Ferrell was dribbling up the court and McNeese State was doing everything it could from stopping him from penetrating the lane.
As a result, Hartman was left wide open on the wing where he made his only 3-pointer of the game.
Ferrell had seven assists Saturday, four of which led to wide-open 3-pointers.
Blackmon Jr. finished with a game-high 24 points, thanks to shooting 5-of-10 from 3-point range.
One of his 3-pointers in the second half came because of ball movement. Ferrell found junior guard Troy Williams, who was cutting from the corner toward the basket. Williams beat a man, but still found himself surrounded by defenders.
So he looked to pass and found Blackmon Jr. wide open in the opposite corner. With no one around, he made the 3-pointer easily.
“It was spacing,” Blackmon Jr. said. “We try to work on that together, so we were talking about that more.”
