Indiana made a habit of dropping huge point total on opponents this season. But in its final game of the year, it got to feel what that was like.
North Carolina's offense was unstoppable Friday, so terrific that it ended Indiana's season pretty early on in the teams' Sweet Sixteen matchup. The No. 1-seeded Tar Heels passed the century mark and scored more points against the Hoosiers than any team has all season, running away with a 101-86 decision and a ticket to the Elite Eight.
The Heels shot a scorching 62.1 percent from the field in the first half and 51.6 percent on the game, building a lead as big as 22 in the second half in the rout.
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With the Hoosiers getting torched on the defensive end, a lack of offensive success made matters worse. Indiana shot just 40.6 percent in the first half, when Carolina built its double-digit lead, and finished the game shooting at a 41-percent clip.
Carolina seemingly couldn't miss in the first half. An Indiana defense that showed it was capable of surrendering big point totals at times this season showed up again at the worst possible time, allowing 52 first-half points. The Tar Heels, not a good 3-point shooting team, was a near-perfect 7-for-8 from behind the arc. Marcus Paige was particularly deadly early, hitting his first four 3-point attempts and piling up 12 points in the game's first five minutes. Paige and Justin jackson combined for 27 first-half points for the Heels. Carolina built a lead as big as 16 in the first half, with only five straight points to end the half preventing Indiana from heading to halftime with a monstrous deficit.
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Going along with those defensive struggles — which were certainly aided by the No. 1-seeded Carolina and its dynamite offense — Indiana wasn't its usual sharp-shooting self on the offensive end, either. The Hoosiers, one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country, was just 4-for-12 from 3-point range.
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The second half was more of the same, the Hoosiers never posing much of a threat. They did hit nine more 3-pointers after halftime, but the lead was merely dented, never threatened.
In his final game as an Indiana player, Yogi Ferrell scored a game-high 25 points. Troy Williams poured in 21 points, Max Bielfeldt had 15 points off the bench and Thomas Bryant added 12.
Paige finished with 21 points, hitting six 3s on the night. Carolina was red hot from 3-point range overall, going 11-for-20 from deep.
The Hoosiers were the final Big Ten team standing after Maryland lost to Kansas on Thursday and Wisconsin lost to Notre Dame earlier Friday. Indiana was the conference's regular-season champion and lost for just the second time in its final nine games.