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Ferrell's huge 2nd half leads Indiana past Butler

Dec 21, 2014 - 12:06 AM Indianapolis, IN (SportsNetwork.com) - Yogi Ferrell scored all 20 of his points in the second half, helping Indiana gain some long-awaited revenge on Butler with an 82-73 victory over the 23rd-ranked Bulldogs at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Troy Williams tied a career high with 22 points and pulled down a personal- best 11 rebounds to aid Indiana's cause in the first meeting between the in- state rivals since Butler stunned the then top-ranked Hoosiers in overtime in Indianapolis during December of 2012.

The outcome also was a special one for Hoosiers head coach Tom Crean, who garnered his 300th career win.

"To me, everybody contributed to the win," Crean said. Yogi did a fantastic job of coming back in the second half."

Butler (8-3) received 23 points from Kellen Dunham and 14 out of Andrew Chrabascz, but struggled offensively for a second straight game.

The Bulldogs shot just 39.1 percent overall and went 3-of-16 from 3-point range, six days after shooting 33.3 percent from the field in a loss at Tennessee.

Indiana (9-2), meanwhile, hit on 8-of-17 tries from long distance to offset a five-point effort from leading scorer James Blackmon Jr.

The teams were deadlocked at 61-61 with 8 1/2 minutes left before the Hoosiers began to pull away behind their more consistent offense.

A Williams jumper was followed by a 3-point play from Blackmon that put Indiana up by five. Back-to-back buckets by the Bulldogs' Roosevelt Jones got Butler within 66-65 with six minutes to go, but the Hoosiers answered with a 10-0 surge that effectively sealed the result.

Nick Zeisloft's 3-pointer ignited the run and Ferrell capped it with a trey of his own after two straight baskets from Williams, with Ferrell's make staking IU to a 76-65 lead with 3:09 to play.

"We stalled out offensively, and they were able to score in that stretch," said Butler head coach Chris Holtmann.

Ferrell then hit four key free throws in the final minute to help keep the Bulldogs at bay.

"It was a one-point game at the six-minute mark and we got five straight stops," said Crean. "That's the sign of a team that's trying to grow up and get better, and that was big for us."

Indiana put together the game's first big run midway through the first half, going on a 9-1 spurt to claim a 26-18 advantage 12 minutes in. It was a 10- point bulge after Hanner Mosquera-Perea tipped in Blackmon's missed shot to send the Hoosiers up 37-27 with 3:44 left in the period, but Butler closed out the stanza on an 11-1 tear to pull even.

Dunham netted the final seven points of the flurry, with his trey 56 seconds prior to the intermission knotting the score at 38-38. He finished with 18 first-half points, but went just 2-of-7 from the floor after the break.

A 7-0 sequence gave Butler its largest lead of the day, a 53-47 edge with under 14 minutes left, but Ferrell scored the first five points of a 7-0 Indiana push later on that had the Hoosiers ahead by a 59-57 count midway through the second half.

Game Notes

Ferrell surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career with his late free throws, which gave him 1,003 in an IU uniform ... The game was the opener of the Crossroads Classic, a doubleheader featuring Indiana's four premier basketball schools. Notre Dame and Purdue will square off in the nightcap ... Butler had won seven straight times at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and entered Saturday's showdown 9-2 all-time at the venue ... The Hoosiers ended a string of six straight losses to ranked teams away from home ... Blackmon, whose 19.2 points per game coming in led all Division I freshmen, went 2-of-12 from the floor but had eight rebounds ... Butler's Kameron Woods posted a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds.