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IU Snaps Five-Game Skid With 63-62 Senior Night Win Over Northwestern

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- As the buzzer sounded to snap Indiana’s five-game losing streak, sophomore center Thomas Bryant walked toward the south end of Branch McCracken court, pointing at the ice in his veins before roaring at the crowd and yelling “THIS IS OUR HOUSE!”

For a Hoosier basketball team that has faced all kinds of setbacks and struggles this season, Saturday night’s 63-62 win over Northwestern at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall was a welcome reprieve.

“You’ve got to have some reward for going through the hard stretch that we’ve gone through,” Indiana head coach Tom Crean said. “And the reward is resiliency.”

Indiana (16-13, 6-10 Big Ten) needed two furious rallies on Sunday, with both coming at the end of both halves.

A 22-run closed the first half, highlighted by a 3/4 court buzzer-beater by IU freshman guard Devonte Green which gave the Hoosiers a 10-point halftime lead.

“It energized that crowd,” Crean said of Green’s buzzer-beater. “The players felt good about that, but we didn’t come out and have the same response at the start of the second half that we needed to. This team is not used to going on 22-0 runs.”

However, that advantage would quickly disappear due to the Hoosiers’ response Crean mentioned.

The Wildcats opened the second half with a 15-4 run and led for 13:08 of the final 13:45 of that period.

In the end, an 8-0 run over the final 77 seconds of the contest was necessary to complete the Hoosiers’ comeback, capped off by a three-point play by Bryant with 2.6 seconds left. The free throw to complete the play bounced up off the back of the rim before falling through the hoop.

“That was in mind, just be aggressive, make a good play,” said IU junior guard James Blackmon Jr., who made the pass to Bryant on the game-winning play. “I heard in the bench calling timeout, but I was already in my move, so I just went with it and tried to be confident.”

“Really, I thought James was going to take that shot, so I was just getting ready in the rebounding position,” Bryant said. “I knew I could in the backside because he was up and he was watching. When James did a hesitation and came through, I was like, ‘whoa, it’s open right here, so I’m just going to keep wedging them out.’ He dumped it off to me and it was a good pass.”

Bryant tallied 11 points for Indiana, second on the team behind Blackmon’s 13. Northwestern (20-9, 9-6) was led by junior guard Bryant McIntosh, who poured in a game-high 22 points in the loss.

Although his future remains undecided, forward Collin Hartman went through the traditional senior night ceremonies anyway. Crean said he’ll have his master’s degree this summer on top of his undergraduate degree in business management.

Still, Crean said it was important to send out the Indianapolis native with a win.

“Not a lot anymore affects me one way or the other, butut senior night always will, no question about it,” Crean said. “Especially knowing what I knew was going to transpire after, you want that to be good.”

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