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The Indiana Daily Student

sports

IU defeats Bellarmine 73-62

Junior forward Troy Williams shoots a layup as Bellarmine's Josh Derksen guards on Monday evening at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers won, 73-62.

The Hoosiers weren’t happy. They won by double digits and led for all but 56 seconds.

But IU should have played better against Bellarmine on Monday night at Assembly Hall, and both senior guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell and junior forward Troy Williams know it.

The Hoosiers beat the Knights 73-62, but led 35-20 at halftime. This translates to the fact that the Hoosiers allowed 42 points in the second half to an opponent who looked helpless for most of the first half.

“We got outscored in the second half by four, 42-38,” Williams said. “That’s huge. That’s not even a Big Ten team. It’s a good team don’t get me wrong, but it’s not even a Big Ten team.”

The offense was fine throughout. Ferrell led all scorers with 21 points and added eight rebounds. Williams also scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds, five of them offensive. Overall, IU out-rebounded 
Bellarmine 41-26.

The defense was also good for most of the first half. For a stretch of 7:46 in the first half, IU kept Bellarmine scoreless.

During that period the Hoosiers extended their lead from 9-7 to 27-7, including stopping the Knights on 11 straight 
possessions.

“I thought we did a really good job of being aggressive,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “We had a lot of deflections in that time span.”

With 8:18 left in the half, after a pair of successful free throws by senior forward Max Bielfeldt, IU switched to a full-court press. Crean yelled at his team to “heat it up,” and the Hoosiers 
responded.

IU forced a turnover, went down the court and extended the lead.

About a minute later, IU forced a shot clock violation against Bellarmine, and the IU bench responded by leaping up onto the court in applause.

“When we have momentum like that going for us, we just have to stick with it and don’t let off the gas,” Ferrell said.

But something happened just before the halftime break. Bellarmine outscored IU 49-38 in the last 21:18 of the game.

Bellarmine forward George Suggs made three straight 3-pointers on Bellarmine’s first three possessions of the second half after making a layup with three seconds left in the first half.

“We didn’t communicate very well guarding him, and he got 
basically all wide-open threes,” Ferrell said. “We barely even contested the shots.”

All in all, Suggs had 14 points in the second half and 17 points total.

After forcing nine turnovers in the first half, the Hoosiers only managed to force the Knights into four turnovers in the second half. After committing seven team fouls in the first half, IU committed 10 in the 
second.

“We learned that we have to bring it all 40 minutes,” Ferrell said. “We can’t go into this game with any drop-offs at any points.”

The last of IU’s second-half fouls might have upset Crean the most. With 24 seconds remaining and IU up 12 points, Zeisloft fouled a player on the perimeter as he was driving toward the basket.

As soon as the whistle blew, Crean threw his hands in the air and turned his back to the play, pacing back toward the corner of Branch McCracken Court.

“The biggest thing our team has to take away is that champions play until the 
final second,” Crean said.

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