A rough 1st loss

With 4:31 remaining in the first half of Saturday’s Chicago Invitational Challenge championship, junior guard/forward Jamarcus Ellis hit a jumper to pull the IU men’s basketball team within one point of Xavier.\nThe score standing 27-26 in favor of Xavier, the No. 8 Hoosiers had the opportunity to mitigate the effects of a disappointing first half by keeping the deficit close or even take the lead into the locker room.\nHowever, the same problems that characterized their sloppy start of the game plagued the Hoosiers during the final four minutes of the first period, as the Musketeers went on a 13-3 run to take a 40-29 lead into halftime.\n“We missed about four or five wide open shots,” IU coach Kelvin Sampson said. “(Ellis) missed a one-and-one. That maybe would have been seven or eight points that we would have had.”\nThe Hoosiers went 1-of-6 from the field down the stretch in the first half; a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Armon Bassett was the only basket for IU. Many of the missed shots were uncontested, but the Hoosiers just could not get the ball to rim in.\n“This is a simple game – you may hear me say that a lot this year,” Sampson said. “When the ball goes in, your offense is good. We had a lot of shots that we have been making the whole year not go in tonight.”\nXavier, on the other hand, went 5-of-9 during the final minutes of the opening frame. \nSampson was more concerned with his team’s failure to execute than Xavier’s offensive production.\n“The 13 is not what bothered me,” Sampson said. “They got the 13 – one was on a kickout three, one was on a play that should never work but worked and then we missed a lot of open shots.”\nThe final 35 seconds of the half were deflating to the Hoosiers. \nIndianapolis native Stanley Burrell hit a 3-pointer for Xavier that bounced off the rim twice before falling in the basket.\nThe Hoosiers tried to respond by feeding the ball to senior forward D.J. White in the post. White made an aggressive move to the basket, and was whistled for his third personal foul on a questionable charge call with two seconds remaining. \nXavier then ended the half with a full-court pass to guard/forward B.J. Raymond, who hit a shot from the corner as time expired. \nDown 11, the Hoosiers never recovered in the second half. IU could only manage to cut the deficit to nine during the second 20 minutes of action, as poor shooting and foul trouble prevented a run from developing.\n“We had a lot of great looks,” Sampson said. “I liked the shots we were getting. Some of them were forced.”\nBoth Sampson and White said the game would be a learning experience for the younger, less experienced players.\n“It’s early, we had lots of people who haven’t been in those type of situations yet,” White said.