Indiana University
25-7
Michigan (Quarterfinals)
22-11
IU Falls in B1G Tournament to Michigan on Buzzer Beater
3/11/2016 2:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana hadn't allowed it to happen in over 24 minutes.
But with 46 seconds remaining, Michigan's Duncan Robinson pulled up with space in the corner and connected for three. The basket brought the Hoosiers and Wolverines even for the 12th time.
Then it happened again. Kameron Chapman hit a trey from the corner as the buzzer sounded, sending the Hoosiers home with a 72-69 loss in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
Michigan's first two threes of the half ended Indiana's bid at a second Big Ten championship.
"We gave Chapman too much room at the end," head coach Tom Crean said. "It was his moment to hit it."
Chapman's bucket might have given the Wolverines the win, but Crean was much more critical of Robinson's make in his postgame conference. That's not how his team defends, he said. They don't leave the corners open. They stick close to shooters.
That's the defensive play that made the Hoosiers regular season champions.
"We wouldn't have won this championship if we weren't pretty good in our defensive coverages," he said. "I thought we battled extremely hard… It just didn't culminate in a win today."
No. 8 Michigan and No. 1 Indiana traded the lead 18 times Friday by a margin of no more than two possessions the entire way through. No one was able to take control of the game, and in a contest that could have seemingly gone back and forth indefinitely provided unlimited minutes, it was the team that got off the last shot that advanced.
A team squarely on the bubble, the Wolverines were fighting for their playoff lives in Bankers Life Fieldhouse, with a win against a top-10 team in Indiana exactly what they needed to curry favor with the selection committee.
"They were basically in the same situation as we were last year with us needing to get as many wins as we could to get into the NCAA Tournament," senior guard Kevin Yogi Ferrell said. "We knew how they wanted to get out there and play desperate, play hard, play physical. We could feel it out there. They just outplayed us today."
Junior forward Troy Williams led four Hoosiers in double digits with 16 points, and freshman OG Anunoby led the bench with a career high 13. Indiana simply couldn't hit as many as shots Michigan, however, shooting 10 of 26 from the field in the second half to the Wolverines' 12 of 27.
The Hoosiers won't know exactly what they need to fix until they examine the film, but 10 turnovers that led to 22 Wolverine points and a failure to create enough motion on offense were problems cited by several players.
But Inside the locker room, the Hoosiers didn't hang their heads. They'll continue to do what they've done all season.
They'll learn. And then they'll improve.
"We're still confident," Anunoby said. "We think we can learn from it. And look forward to the next game."
Firmly in the NCAA Tournament field, Indiana will wait to find out its seeding and destination on Selection Sunday.
But if there's one thing to be said of an early exit from the conference tournament, it's that it can augment the Hoosiers' drive to win again in March.
"We always have that hunger inside of us," freshman center Thomas Bryant said.
"This loss right here just makes it a little bit more."
