Indiana 71 Butler 68 — Three Keys | Final Box Score | Specialty Stats

Wow. What a great college basketball game in a great environment. For the seventh time in eight appearances at the Crossroads Classic, Indiana played in a single digit game that went down to the wire. Indiana is now 5-3 in the event, tying Butler for the best mark among the four participating schools.

After falling behind early, the Hoosiers put together a 19-7 rally in the game’s final 9:31 to pull out the stunning victory capped off by a Rob Phinisee three-pointer at the buzzer.

Indiana (9-2) returns to action on Wednesday at home against Central Arkansas.

THREE KEYS TO THE GAME

Another Phinisee Phantastic Phinish. What can you say at this point? The dude has ice in his veins. Don’t overlook his five assists on just one turnover against exceptional Butler defensive pressure on the ball. Phinisee was also being targeted by Butler’s offensive attack by junior guard Kamar Baldwin, and physically the IU freshman point guard held up on that end as well.

The 👌 from @robphinisee1 for the win! pic.twitter.com/7OSm6H0TU9

— Indiana Basketball (@IndianaMBB) December 15, 2018

Morgan takes the game over. Of course all of the focus will go on Phinisee’s shot. But what did senior forward Juwan Morgan do? Just a new career high with 35 points. More impressive than the points was how efficient he was in getting them. For the game Morgan was 12 of 14 from the field and seven of seven from the line. He also topped 1,000 points for his career.

Eventually this script will backfire. Louisville, Northwestern, Penn State and now Butler. Four straight games where the Hoosiers fell behind early and then scrapped and clawed their way back for a win. Enjoy it now, but take a peek at the January schedule. Long term IU will need more complete efforts to survive in the Big Ten.