Bryant Crawford’s driving layup with 3.2 seconds to play gave Wake Forest the lead and the Demon Deacons beat No. 13 IN 82-78 on Monday IN the opening round of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. “But I thought fatigue might have played a little bit of a part in that game”.
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IN will play UNLV, a 93-73 victor over Chaminade, for fifth place today. “We told the guys, ‘Great win, way to fight, way to grind it out”. See where we’re good. “I enjoy watching our team fight to the end”, junior safety DeVon Edwards said. They have five players in double figures in the last two games, the first time they’ve done that since 2006-07…. “And then we got a great stop at the end”. St. John’s were led by Federico Mussini and Ron Mvoika who both finished with 17 points, but it just wasn’t enough to fend off this determined Hoosiers team.
St. John’s is coached by its all-time leading scorer, Chris Mullin, and he has found out in a hurry in his first season how important depth can be, especially with the three games in the next three days. “I wanted to give him time in the second half”.
IL got off to a rough start in the first half against Chicago State, entering the break down by eight points thanks to a awful 28.1% performance from the field, including hitting only 3 of their 14 three point attempts.
The Hoosiers had plenty of chances to run away with things, but they turned the ball over 16 times and St. John’s did a good job of capitalizing off of those turnovers as they scored 25 points off of turnovers compared to Indiana’s nine. They go because it’s a prestigious tournament with star-studded fields, and to look in the mirror to find out who they truly are, he said. “We were upset with the loss (Monday), but we looked at this as another opportunity for us to go out and show everybody what we’re made of, and I felt like we did that (Tuesday)”. The Hoosiers seemingly had control of the game but were undone by their lack of ability to secure defensive rebounds late and their curious shot selection. So I think that didn’t transition over into this game.
The Rebels are leeches defensively, turning opponents over on 22.9 percent of their offensive possessions entering Wednesday’s game.
Wake Forest did not get closer than 13 the rest of the way. Yet, Jonah Bolden did not play in the second half until under a minute left when the game was over. The win over No. 13 IN was Wake Forest’s first over a ranked team since March 5, 2014, against No. 4 Duke, and its first outside Winston-Salem since beating No. 4 North Carolina on January 20, 2010. The Red Storm will play its third game of the Championship Round on Wednesday.
Ironically UCLA ended the tournament the way they started – just in reverse – losing 80-77 to Wake Forest.
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Williams led the Hoosiers with 16 points and Robert Johnson added 14.
