IU escapes scare from Temple

DAYTON, Ohio — They had trailed nearly the entire second half to a 9-seed, once by as many as six points. One of their opponents had gone off for 20 points in the first half. He had single-handedly kept his team in contention to possibly take down the second 1-seed is this year’s NCAA Tournament.

But after a 63-61 win last year in the Round of 32 against VCU after falling behind late in the second half, the IU men’s basketball team learned pretty wins do nothing in March.

No more polls, no more analysts to win over.

“You have to survive and advance this time of year,” sophomore forward Cody Zeller said.

Friday, the Hoosiers watched as Temple’s Khalif Wyatt torched N.C. State with a 31-point performance, even when he shot just 40.9 percent from the floor. Going into Sunday’s game, junior guard Victor Oladipo knew he’d have his hands full with Wyatt.

And until the second half, not even Oladipo, one of the nation’s top defenders, had an answer to Wyatt’s performance.

In the first half, Wyatt scored 20 of Temple’s 29 points, once digging the Owls out of a 20-11 deficit all on his own.

Other than Wyatt, the Owls shot just 4-of-20 from the field in the first half, including a dismal 0-of-6 line from beyond the arc. The Owls continued to put up bricks from 3-point land, but their seven offensive rebounds kept them in the game as they took eight more shots than IU in the first half.

Zeller and Oladipo each had six early points, and after freshman forward Jeremy Hollowell hit a 3-pointer and junior forward Will Sheehey scored three consecutive points, the Hoosiers held a nine-point lead, 18-9, with 11:08 left in the half.

But Wyatt outscored the Hoosiers 13-4 during a 6:44 stretch during the latter end of the half, and IU managed to shoot just 2-of-12 during the last 10 minutes.

Wyatt’s teammates scored the final five points in the half, grabbing the team’s first lead of the game off a dunk by Anthony Lee with 2:35 remaining, and they held onto at least a tie for the remainder of the half, going into the locker room ahead 29-26.

But luckily for his team, Crean said playing in tough battles night in and night out in the Big Ten this season had prepared his players to keep fighting, and after the VCU win last season, Crean knew it certainly wasn’t over.

“You’re never sitting over there talking about if we’re going to win the game,” Crean said. “It’s ‘this is what we had to do’ and you keep all doubts out of their heads and keep them focused.”

Sophomore guard Remy Abell, who started the second half in place of starting senior guard Jordan Hulls after Hulls injured his shoulder in the first half, was matched up with Wyatt.

Whether matched with him or not, Oladipo said the Hoosiers were determined to stop Wyatt and force his teammates to earn the win.

“He did a phenomenal job scoring the basketball, so I was just trying to limit his touches and tried to make it hard for him to even move.”

After Wyatt shot 8-of-14 in the first half, the Hoosiers managed to frustrate him a bit, slowing down Temple’s offensive production as well, but, even then, the Hoosiers couldn’t quite take advantage.

The Hoosiers pulled within a single point at 35-34 after a 6-2 run with 13:52 to play, but Wyatt still managed a couple buckets against Oladipo’s in-your-face defense, and Temple’s lead grew to as much as six.

Hulls and Sheehey hit 3-pointers within a span of 2:03 to erase the deficit, but the Owls continued to hit just enough shots to keep the lead.

That was, until 3:09 left in regulation, when Wyatt hit the Owls’ last points for the afternoon, two free throws, that boosted their lead to four.

The Hoosiers would finish the game on a 10-0 run, including a 3-pointer from Oladipo at the top of the key with 15 seconds left to grab IU’s first lead of the second half.

Wyatt threw up a desperation 3-pointer the next possession to counter, but his “March Madness” magic had finally run out.

“It was fun while it lasted,” Wyatt said. “We just didn’t come out on top. Really disappointing, but just proud of our year we had and just try to keep our heads up.”

After the game, Crean went up to Wyatt and the rest of the Temple squad to congratulate them as one of the toughest opponents Crean said his team had faced all season.

But against their tough foe, the Hoosiers managed to clinch a berth to Washington, D.C. in the Sweet 16 Thursday against Syracuse, the dream of an NCAA title still alive.