Pat Lovell-USA TODAY Sports
The Indiana Hoosiers (13-7, 3-4) got back to their winning ways Sunday afternoon as they beat the Illinois Fighting Illini (13-8, 2-6) 56-46 in front of a sold out Assembly Hall crowd. The Hoosiers led by only two at halftime, but sophomore point guard Yogi Ferrell led this team to victory today due to his second half performance.
Ferrell has struggled over the past few games. He was 4-for-13 against the Michigan State Spartans on Tuesday, 2-for-14 at home against the Northwestern Wildcats last Saturday, 10-for-24 in the upset victory over the Wisconsin Badgers a few weeks ago and 4-for-13 at Penn State 15 days ago.
That’s only 31 percent shooting from the field for Indiana’s star.
He was even worse from three-point land as he was shooting 24 percent from behind the arc entering today’s contest.
At halftime, Ferrell only had two points on 0-for-2 shooting.
So what he did in the second half took guts.
Ferrell scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half as he went a perfect 6-for-6 from the line down the stretch to seal the win for Indiana. He was 4-for-5 from the field in the last 20 minutes of play which was clutch for Indiana and allowed it to complete step one of its pursuit of getting back into the NCAA Tournament talks.
If Ferrell can give that type of effort he gave in the second half, then Indiana is in good shape. He distributed the ball well all day as he had five assists. He also crashed the boards well grabbing four rebounds.
What a solid day out of the Indianapolis native.
