Jordan Hulls led a group of five Indiana players in double figures as the Hoosiers remained unbeaten with a 107-50 thrashing of outmanned Howard Monday at Assembly Hall in Bloomington. IU is now 11-0 and joins elite company in school history. The only other Indiana teams to go 11-0 were in 1942-43, 1974-75 and 1975-76, the last time a Division I national champion finished the season undefeated.
The Hoosiers (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 17 AP) matched a season-high with 11 3-pointers and rolled to the second-most lopsided victory in school history. They shot a sizzling 67.3 percent from the field.
"Our guys were on it," affirmed IU head coach Tom Crean said. "They were ready to play, excited to play and excited to join some elite company. When there are only a few teams in the illustrious history of this program that have done something (like going 11-0), they wanted to join that group."
On the same day Indiana celebrated its 500th all-time appearance in The Associated Press Top 25, No. 7 all-time, it produced the school's most lopsided victory margin since a 94-29 shellacking of Notre Dame on Dec. 18, 1971. The 107 points were the most in 13 years, dating to a 108-88 victory over George Washington in March 1999.
Hulls scored 16 points; Verdell Jones, Cody Zeller,and Will Sheehey all had 12 and Christian Watford finished with 10.
Howard (3-9) shot just 30.6 percent from the field, went 3 of 15 from beyond the arc, needed 25 minutes to finally crack the 20-point mark and wound up with as many turnovers (19) as baskets. Simuel Frazier had 13 points, the only Bison to reach double figures.
Watford wiped out Howard's only lead when his 3-pointer bounced through the net for Indiana's first basket. After making it 17-10 with 12:40 to go in the first half, the Hoosiers delivered their knockout punch, a 16-0 spurt that ended with two 3s from Jones and a third from Hulls.
Dadrian Collins ended that run with a driving layup, which was merely a speed bump for the Hoosiers.
Indiana answered with 10 more points to make it 43-12. By halftime, the lead was 52-15, and the lead grew to as many as 60 points twice in the second half.
The Hoosiers have one final tune-up, a Thursday night home game with the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, before a Christmas break and the opening of Big Ten Conference play next week.
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