Zeller, Hoosiers too much for Illinois
By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Assistant Editor
CHICAGO – Against Illinois in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament, Indiana showed why it’s going to be such a difficult out in the postseason.
No. 1-seed IU recorded a convincing 80-64 win over No. 8-seed Illinois thanks to a total team effort.
Five Hoosier players scored in double figures, led by Cody Zeller’s sensational performance. Zeller poured in a game-high 24 points, knocking down 9-of-11 shots from the field and all six of his free throws, while Christian Watford chipped in 15 points and Victor Oladipo added a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds).
Sharpshooter Jordan Hulls scored just one point, but that didn’t faze him one bit. He had a game-best seven assists and three steals, playing one of his best defensive games of the year.
Will Sheehey came off the bench to ignite the Hoosiers in the first half. He finished with 11 points.
It seemed as though anyone IU coach Tom Crean inserted into the game responded with a positive contribution. His marquee players certainly did.
“It takes a whole team to win,” Oladipo said.
Zeller added, “The guys we have on this team are great as far as everyone is humble. There’s no jealousy at all, which makes us a tough team to beat.”
“Sitting where we’re sitting, the team has been the headline maker,” Crean said. “Because these guys are so unselfish and they’re so selfless with one another and the way that they work, the way that they share the credit, the way that they play offensively and defensively.”
Oh, and did the Hoosiers ever clamp it down on defense. They smothered Illinois, holding the Illini to just 25.9 percent shooting from the floor in the first half (7-of-27).
Oladipo was his usual self. He drew the assignment of containing Illinois’ top scorer Brandon Paul. Paul needed 13 shots to get 16 points, 11 of those came from the foul line.
Oladipo credited his teammates for his defensive effort.
“I wasn’t the only one,” he said. “Will guarded him and Remy (Abell) as well.
“He’s a great player and we tried to slow him down. He takes a lot of shots in order for them to win. So when you go against someone like that you’ve got to force them to take tough shots and I think we did a great job of doing that.”
Paul said he had limited daylight to maneuver.
“Oladipo is a great defender,” he said.
Both teams started the game cold, but IU used a 12-2 first-half run and was never seriously threatened after that.
Indiana was so good on the defensive end that it limited Illinois to just five points in an 11-minute span in the opening half.
The lead was 14 at the break (35-21).
Illini coach John Groce pointed out that had it not been for his team’s defensive effort, the halftime score would’ve been even more lopsided.
“Had they not showed the resiliency and toughness that they did in the first half, we would have been down a lot more,” Groce said. “I thought our defense was really good.”
Time and again in the second stanza the Illini just couldn’t get the lead to under double digits. They finally did with just over eight minutes to play when it was 60-52.
But big man Nnanna Egwu missed a wide open 17 footer, Tracy Abrams missed a triple and Paul missed a triple.
Then Oladipo scored to stretch the lead to 62-52 at the 6:36 mark.
After D.J. Richardson threw up an errant three-pointer at the other end Watford proceeded to deliver the knockout blow, burying a three-pointer from the wing to make it 65-52 with 5:30 to go.
Illinois never got within a double-figure deficit the remainder of the game.
Groce said his team’s defensive play in the second half wasn’t nearly as effective as it was in the first half.
“I thought our offense was really good and defensively we weren’t able to stop them in the second half,” the first-year Illinois coach said. “I thought they got too many layups, the got baskets in transition.
“When you’re playing, you’ve got to be good in both, on both offense and defense, both halves.”
IU was not only good in both halves, it was good in all facets of the game.
It flexed its muscle on the glass, outrebounding Illinois 38-26, and killed the Illini in the paint, outscoring them 40-24 in close.
The Hoosiers also were effective at the charity stripe, knocking down 21-of-24 freebies.
So Indiana moves on and will face No. 4 Wisconsin, who knocked off Michigan 68-59 this afternoon, in the first game of Saturday’s semifinal round. That game tips at 1:40 p.m. ET (12:40 p.m. in Chicago) and will be televised by CBS.
Also:
Griffiths: Zeller one of college basketball’s all-time best big men
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