Hulls Hot Hand Guides the Hoosiers to the Round of 32 with a 79-66 Win over New Mexico State
PORTLAND, Ore. — It was classic old fashioned Indiana Basketball.
That was how one journalist after the game described it, and the results tell the story.
Jordan Hulls scored 22 points, and led the #4 seeded Hoosiers to a 79-66 over the #13 New Mexico State Aggies.
Christian Watford, Will Sheehey, and Cody Zeller each chipped in with 14 points a piece, as well as helping the Hoosiers to a whopping 50 deflections and forcing the Aggies into 17 turnovers.
And even though this may have been their first time playing in the NCAA Tournament, they played like chiseled veterans on the court.
Sheehey was alive around the basket all game long, cleaning up missed shots into made baskets, and Zeller made his presence felt in the second half, when he scored five points in a two minute span. He also broke an Indiana record for steals in an NCAA Tournament game, with six, the previous being five by Quinn Buckner in 1976.
Watford hit his first shot of the game was a three point basket that he drilled to give the Hoosiers a 5-2 lead, and they never looked back, extending the lead at one point to 21 points in the second half.
For New Mexico St., their finish their season with a 26-10 record, and were lead in scoring by Wendell McKines, who had 15 points and 7 rebounds.
For the first time in a long time, the Hoosiers lost the rebound battle, but that was mostly because Indiana forced a lot of turnovers, and hit nearly 60 percent of their shots on the day.
Indiana, now with 26 wins on the season, moves on to face Virginia Commonwealth University, the same team that made a run to the Final Four last year in Houston, Texas. They are still coached by Shaka Smart, and run one of the best presses this Hoosier team will see all season.
Indiana takes on VCU on Saturday at 7:10pm ET. WIUX will have all your coverage all weekend from Portland all the way till tip-off, which can be heard on the 99.1FM airwaves in Bloomington.
Last 5 posts by Dan Karell
- Alex Cohen, lead broadcaster for the Huntsville Stars, returns to the Evening Schmooze on 4/30/12 - May 3rd, 2012
- Bill Murphy, the official Schmooze IU Athletics Historian, joins the Evening Schmooze on 4/30/12 - May 3rd, 2012
- Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe joins the Evening Schmooze for a Second Time on 4/30/12 - May 3rd, 2012
- Charlie Parker from the Manchester Guardian joins the Evening Schmooze on 4/30/12 - May 3rd, 2012
- Ryan Brewer, Professor of Business at IU-PU Columbus joins the Evening Schmooze on 4/23/12 - April 24th, 2012