IU men’s basketball fell in overtime 75-71 Tuesday against No. 12 Illinois in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers scored just 30 points in the second half and overtime after leading at halftime 41-34.
After nine days off, IU seemed rejuvenated at the start of the game against Illinois. The Hoosiers opened the game blowing by Illini defenders while driving and knocking down open shots, making their first two 3-pointers of the game.
Senior guard Al Durham took charge from the opening tip as the lone senior on the team, jumpstarting IU’s night, scoring 8 of the team’s first 12 points.
“I think our team was here to play tonight,” IU head coach Archie Miller said. “We started better than we have started in the past. We had a terrific first half with only four turnovers and scored 41 points.”
After coming out of the gate firing, IU’s offense cooled down. A big part of the change was Illinois starting to use Kofi Cockburn as a floater in the middle of their defense, preventing IU from getting to the rim. No Hoosier was able to get a clean look in the paint with the 7-foot sophomore forward roaming in the middle.
Early on, IU’s only consistent interior offense came from second-chance points, from which the Hoosiers got 7 points on five offensive rebounds because Cockburn wasn’t able to rotate over fast enough after the miss to contest the shot.
Without the interior offense which the Hoosiers rely on, IU’s offense ground to a halt. Luckily for IU, its defense was able to keep the team in the game, holding Cockburn, reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year, to 6 points and junior guard Ayo Dosunmu to just 2-for-7 from the field in the first half.
“Ayo is a great player,” Miller said. “It just shows a testament to their team to be able to be able to come in on the road and win one when your best player goes 2-for-11 from the floor.”
Down the stretch of the first half, IU started to succeed on offense. The Hoosiers couldn’t shy away from Cockburn and let him disrupt the entire offense — they had to attack him intelligently.
Cockburn is too big to shoot over or move off the block for easy layups. Instead, the Hoosiers used his aggressiveness contesting shots to their advantage. They baited him into leaving his feet and finding easy drop-off passes on the weak size, eliminating his shot-blocking ability.
IU finished off one of its best first halves of the season holding Illinois without a field goal for the last 4:31, while scoring 13 points over that stretch This was capped off by Jackson-Davis’ buzzer-beater over Cockburn outstretched arm.
While walking off the court at the end of the first half, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood was yelling at his team, “You contest every shot,” after the Hoosiers went on a small run to give themselves some breathing room as they headed into the locker room.
Illinois adjusted accordingly as it opened the second half locked in and pressuring IU’s ball handlers, forcing three early turnovers and a flurry of rushed shots.
While the Hoosiers struggled to put the ball in the basket early in the second half going on a 2:36 scoring drought, the Illini got to the rim with ease going on a 7-0 run as they erased a 7-point halftime deficit, taking a 50-47 lead with just under 13 minutes remaining.
IU responded with a 7-0 run of its own to regain control before the two teams settled into a back-and-forth game down the stretch.
The Hoosiers appeared to be comfortable carrying a 6-point lead with five minutes remaining in the game. Illinois hadn’t scored in nearly three minutes, and then, the lead vanished.
Senior guard Trent Fraizer drilled an easy step-in 3-pointer. On the next possession, he made another as freshman guard Khristian Lander sagged off of him below the 3-point line. On the third time down the court, Lander fouled Fraizer while he was shooting to give the Illini a 2-point lead with just over three minutes left in the game.
“Trent Frazier really stepped up in that one segment of the game when it could have gone either way,” Miller said. “He banged a couple threes and got the free throws. That one shot I thought was a really important run for them to be able to get back in the game.”
In the closing seconds, Illinois had a chance to win the game as Cockburn drove to the middle of the paint and unleashed a floater that bounced around the rim before rolling off into the arms of Jackson-Davis, sending IU to its fourth overtime of the season.
Both teams struggled in overtime, but IU couldn’t get a good look on offense. The Hoosiers looked to their star, Jackson-Davis, in the extra period, but he couldn’t get by Cockburn as he failed to score in overtime.
Illinois’ bench celebrated as senior guard Da’Monte Williams made his two free throws to put the game out of reach as the buzzer sounded on IU’s upset bid.
“Our guys competed, but we are not tough enough to finish games yet,” Miller said. “There are just too many of those plays right now that we are not able to finish off. The tough plays that you have to make to win and that is why we are in so many heartbreakers.”
