IU defeats Penn State

Until late in the second half Wednesday night, the IU men’s basketball team was shooting at a higher percentage in contested 3-point shots than on free throws.

Though they finished just marginally better from the charity stripe, the 3-point shot sparked the Hoosiers, en route to a 72-49 defeat of Penn State Wednesday night in Assembly Hall.

After a layup from senior forward Christian Watford to start the Hoosiers off, freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell hit a deep 3-pointer. Ferrell followed that up with another bucket to begin his run to a career-high 15 points of the night.

Junior guard Victor Oladipo said after the game that he has seen Ferrell blossom as a confident shooter since the start of the season, and that Wednesday night he was not afraid to pull the trigger.

“He can shoot,” Oladipo said. “It was all in his head at first, but he’s finally realizing that he can shoot the ball.”

After the quick seven points spearheaded by Ferrell, the Hoosiers struggled for much of the rest of the half on offense, scoring just 26 points in the final 15:21 of the first half.

But with 3:29 left in the half and the Nittany Lions still within nine points, junior forward Will Sheehey came alive from beyond the arc to spur the Hoosiers coming into halftime.

Sheehey hit two consecutive 3-pointers in 1:06 as IU’s lead grew into double digits, where it would remain for the remainder of the game.

After Sheehey scored just six points Sunday against Northwestern, which followed two scoreless outings against Minnesota and Wisconsin, Oladipo said seeing his teammate finally catch fire was just the spark the Hoosiers needed.

“It’s big for our team,” Oladipo said. “Him coming off the bench and having games like that and impacting them on both sides of the floor is big for us going along.”

Out of the gates in the second half, Sheehey’s spark from beyond the arc seemed to carry over to the rest of his teammates, as the Hoosiers hit six-straight shots from long range to help distance themselves from the Nittany Lions.

Ferrell and senior guard Jordan Hulls hit back-to-back threes to begin the half for IU, and with just 1:05 off the clock in the second half, Penn State Coach Patrick Chambers was forced to call a timeout.

The Hoosiers would hit four more 3-pointers in a row — another from Ferrell, along with one each from Sheehey, Oladipo and Watford.

In contrast, though, IU struggled just a few feet in front of the 3-point line, where the Hoosiers shot just 21-of-37 (56.8 percent) on free throws Wednesday.

The Nittany Lions racked up 29 personal fouls as a team, but the Hoosiers could not take advantage of their opportunities from the charity stripe, shooting only marginally better than their 55-percent mark from beyond the arc.

Oladipo led the Hoosiers with 19 points and was the only Hoosier able to hit more than 50 percent of his 3-point shots as well as from the free throw attempts, shooting 100 and 75 percent, respectively.

Ferrell followed with 15 points, shooting 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, and Sheehey took a flawless night from distance, going 3-of-3 on 3-pointers to produce 12 points of his own.

IU Coach Tom Crean said his top-three scorers Wednesday night weren’t just a product of getting in a rhythm as a team, though. He said his players who shot the ball the best against Penn State have spent extra time working on their shots out of practice, and it’s starting to show.

“The guys that are making shots are spending the most extra time on their shooting,” Crean said. “I mean, it’s no accident. We spend a very good amount of time shooting the ball in our practice, but that’s never going to be enough if you’re going to be a great shooter.”