by David Cassilo / @dcassilo
It wasn’t pretty in any way, but Hoosier fans could care less. For the first time under Tom Creen, Indiana beat a ranked team when it knocked off No. 20 Illinois on Thursday, 52-49.
The Hoosiers, who got over the .500 mark overall and notched its second Big Ten victory with the win, held Illinois to just 32 percent shooting from the field. While Indiana did not have a very solid offensive game itself, it was a perfect 11-for-11 from the foul line.
The game was in question until the very end, and a tip-in by Tom Pritchard put the Hoosiers up for good with 44 seconds left.
Thursday’s win eclipsed last season’s win total of 10 for Indiana and showed that the Hoosiers are slowly working their way back to relevance.
From The Chicago Sun-Times:
To celebrate Tom Crean’s biggest win in his three years at Indiana, excited IU students and fans stormed the court.
‘‘I attempted to slap hands with everybody in the building,’’ Crean said after posting his first IU win against a ranked team.
‘‘I think I got to half of them. It’s an amazing feeling to see people that happy.’’
The Hoosiers had lost 19 straight games against ranked teams until Thursday. Their last win came on Feb. 19, 2008, when they defeated No. 14 Purdue. Since that victory, the Hoosiers are 30-60 overall and 10-40 in the Big Ten.
