Gophers hand Hoosiers first home loss of 2011-12 season

In the Hoosiers’ first test as a top ten team, they failed.
The IU men’s basketball team suffered its first loss at Assembly Hall this season, as they fell to unranked Minnesota 77-74 Thursday night.
“Any loss is going to be terrible,” junior guard Jordan Hulls said. “It’s our home court. We’ve got to defend our home court. Give credit to Minnesota. They came here, and we didn’t match their energy.”
The Golden Gophers (13-5, 1-4), who came into the contest without a conference win, captured their first road win over a top ten foe since 1981.
Besides snapping IU’s 11-game home win streak, the loss also marked the first time the Hoosiers (15-2, 3-2) fell to an unranked foe this season.
“We just didn’t have our edge,” Hulls said. “We didn’t get stops when we needed to, we let them get way too many open shots, we didn’t take away things that we needed to. We were very poor defensively and needed to communicate a lot more.”
On the offensive side of the ball, IU came into Thursday night boasting the nation’s top 3-point field goal percentage at 48 percent. The Hoosiers were even coming off of a game against Penn State in which they hit 16-of-24 shots from 3-point range.
However, the Hoosiers were held to 22 percent (4-of-18) from beyond the arc.
It didn’t get much better for IU inside the paint either as the Hoosiers shot 43 percent from the field.
“We’ve just got to play a lot better defense and let that create our offense,” Hulls said. “We’ve got to be mature enough and have that edge when they aren’t falling. We’ve just got to create it some other way.”
The Gophers on the other hand, shot 47 percent from the floor to capture the upset victory.
Crean said the reason for their successful three-point shooting coming into Thursday’s game was a product of good ball movement. But against Minnesota, IU had a season-low six assists.
“It’s going to be one of those nights where we’re going to look at the film and see the ball didn’t move as well,” Crean said. “Our movement and some of our screening weren’t nearly as good.”
After trading baskets for much of the first half, the Gophers took the lead at the 9:50 mark of the first half.
IU shot just 39 percent (10-of-26) from the floor in the first half and was 13 percent (1-of-8) from beyond the arc.
The Gophers wouldn’t look back.
Every attempt the Hoosiers made to close the gap, the Gophers answered with a run of their own. IU’s 3-point struggles continued as they were held to one trey ball in the first 28:35 of the game.
IU rallied in the final minute to score 12 points in 41 seconds to get within one.
But Minnesota sophomore guard Austin Hollins knocked down two free throws to close out the win.
But again, it came down to a lack of edge.
“We just didn’t come with that same edge that we’ve won with,” freshman forward Cody Zeller said.
The Hoosiers won’t have time to sulk with a showdown at No. 5 Ohio State on Sunday afternoon.
For Crean and the Hoosiers, it’s a lesson learned.
“As I said in the locker room to these guys, I’m not going to overreact, but I’m not going to under-react,” Crean said. “We’re going to move forward in a quick way. It is very clear that we’ve got to get that edge back, and I’m very confident we will.”