Indiana University Athletics
Indiana University
3-1
Wake Forest
3-1
Wake Forest Upsets No. 13/14 Indiana In Closing Seconds
11/23/2015 7:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By: Sam Beishuizen, IUHoosiers.com
LAHAINA, Hawaii - Indiana's first loss of the 2015-16 season came in dramatic fashion.
Wake Forest ended on a 17-6 run to defeat the Hoosiers 82-78 in the opening round of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. Wake Forest freshman guard Bryant Crawford converted on what proved to be the game-winning layup with 3.2 seconds left to play.
Without much time to work with, the Hoosiers turned the ball over on the inbound try and fouled Wake Forest's John Collins immediately. Collins made two free throws with .7 seconds left to seal the victory.
No. 13/14 Indiana (3-1) will play St. John's (3-1) at 2 p.m. (Eastern) Tuesday in the consolation bracket. The Red Storm lost to Vanderbilt 92-55 earlier Monday.
"Wake Forest deserved to win because they played a better game for a longer period of time," Indiana head coach Tom Crean said. "It's hard to beat anybody when you play 15, 16 solid minutes, and that's what we did."
Clinging to a 77-76 lead in the final minute, senior guard Yogi Ferrell couldn't convert on a mid-range jumper that could have put the Hoosiers up by three points. Wake Forest (3-1) gathered in the rebound, on a 9-2 run already, and called timeout with 33 seconds to play.
On the ensuing possession, Crawford used a screen to find a lane to the rim where he converted over freshman center Thomas Bryant's outstretched arm to give the Demon Deacons a one-point lead. On the other end of the floor, IU junior forward Troy Williams was fouled on a layup try. After missing his first free throw troy, Williams converted on the second to tie the game at 78-78 with 13.1 seconds left.
From there, Crawford took his time and found the space he needed for his game-winning layup with time winding down.
"It obviously wasn't something we planned for," fifth-year senior forward Max Bielfeldt said. "We feel as a team we could have played better and done more things offensively and defensively to make this a game we could have won."
A back-and-forth game throughout, Indiana took a 72-63 lead on a 9-0 with 7:37 left in the half before Wake Forest began to mount its comeback. The Demon Deacons led 50-45 at halftime before both offenses slowed considerably in the second half.
Williams was an offensive bright spot for Indiana, scoring a team-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Bryant flirted with a double-double, scoring eight points and grabbing a team-high eight rebounds.
Wake Forest center Devin Thomas led the Demon Deacons with 21 points on 10-of-18 and also grabbed eight rebounds.
The Hoosiers allowed five Wake Forest players to score in double-figures and gave up 52 points in the paint while being outrebounded 43-30.
"It came from, first off, lack of communication," Johnson said. "That was a big part of it and then the second thing was the mindset of myself and everybody else. We've got to continue to build a defensive mindset that we're going to go out and stop people."
Though disappointed in the loss, Indiana won't have much time to think about it. The Hoosiers immediately have to turn around and play St. John's less than 24 hours after suffering their first loss of the season.
There's nothing Indiana can do to change the result in the first round, so they've got to study it and move ahead, Bielfeldt said. Though a championship is now out of reach, the Maui Invitational is far from over.
"Today, we learned a hard lesson," he said, "and we're going to learn from it and do everything we can to, next time we see a team like that, we're going to embrace it and push back as much as we can and hopefully do the same thing to them."
