Hoosiers leapfrog TCU

Everyday, it seems, the Hoosiers face a new challenge.

At halftime Wednesday, Tom Crean added one more to the staggering heap: come out with the best start to a second half as they’ve had all season.

He described the team’s play following halftime as a “glaring” weakness, and with the Hoosiers coming off of a particularly sloppy first half, it wasn’t clear if they would be up to the challenge.

But they quickly made believers out of Crean, stretching their lead to 10 in less than six minutes, helping the Hoosiers (5-4) finish off the Horned Frogs, 66-56.

IU shot 56 percent after halftime and led by as many as 23 before TCU closed the game on a 15-2 run, leaving the end result looking much closer than the game actually was.

Despite staying close in the first half, TCU coach Jim Christian said the Hoosiers out-competed his team in “every facet of the game.”

The statistics backed Christian up: The Hoosiers were better than the Horned Frogs in shooting, rebounding, turnovers and assists.

And while the Hoosiers finished below their season average of 20.3 turnovers per game, they were just barely under, committing 19.

Crean called the number “disappointing.”

“We’re finally going to have our (turnover) numbers down if the game could have ended after 38-and-a-half minutes,” Crean joked of the Horned Frogs’ late run. “Some of us thought the game did end after 38-and-a-half minutes.”

Junior guard Devan Dumes led the Hoosiers with 20 points and freshman forward Tom Pritchard recorded his third double-double, finishing with 15 points and 11 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive end.

Crean chalked up Pritchard’s performance to a “combination of rebounding his own misses” and being “aggressive.”

In the first half, the Hoosiers were marred by turnovers and mental mistakes. They connected on just 33.3 percent of field goals and turned the ball over eight times.

But two highlight 3-pointers bailed out IU’s stalling offense enough to give the Hoosiers a four-point lead headed into the half.

The first bomb came at the hands of junior guard Devan Dumes, who converted a four-point play just over four minutes into the game to put the Hoosiers up 5-2.

The second came at the halftime buzzer. With 10.6 seconds left, Crean whistled for a timeout to draw up a play. Freshman guard/forward Malik Story held his follow through after launching a 30-foot 3-pointer that swished through the net, igniting the Assembly Hall crowd.

The Hoosiers began to distance themselves from the Horned Frogs in the second half. A basket by Pritchard with just over 14 minutes left put IU up by double figures for the first time at 39-29.

As the second half stretched on, so did the Hoosiers’ lead. After struggling to get anything going in the first half, the Hoosiers couldn’t seem to do much wrong midway through the second. A 3-point play by Dumes with 5:26 left put the Hoosiers up 20.

IU’s next game will be Crean’s first against a rival school as the Hoosiers’ head coach. The Hoosiers travel to Rupp Arena on Saturday to face their border rivals, the Kentucky Wildcats (6-3).

The Wildcats have lost twice already this season in Lexington, Ky., including a season-opening loss to Virginia Military, 111-103.

The Hoosiers are 23-28 all-time against Kentucky. Last season, IU defeated the Wildcats in Assembly Hall, 70-51, although the Hoosiers return no players who scored in the contest.