Photo courtesy of IU Athletics:

Coming off of a tough road loss to Wisconsin on Thursday, Sunday’s game against the Iowa Hawkeyes was nothing short of a must win for Indiana.

With the stage set, the Hoosiers stepped up and put forth their best offensive performance this season by topping one hundred, defeating the Hawkeyes 103-89.

Leading the way offensively was freshman standout Cody Zeller, who scored a career high 26 points to go along with four rebounds.

Zeller was extremely efficient in the paint, converting on 11-of-12 field goal attempts including eight dunks. When asked about his success he immediately gave credit to his guard play for giving him easy opportunities for his baskets.

“I had a pretty easy job just catching and dunking,” Zeller said. “Our guards did a really nice job of finding me in the alley a couple times.”

The entire frontcourt for the Hoosiers had success Sunday; the combination of Derek Elston, Tom Pritchard, and Christian Watford combined for 33 points to assist Zeller’s 26.

With 13 minutes remaining in the first half, a rare offensive spark from Elston ignited the rest of the Hoosier attack. In a span of 68 seconds, he rattled off eight straight points to give Indiana a 26-18 lead. The big change according to Elston was his level of confidence.

“Coach Crean called me last night, and just told me to play with confidence. Once I saw that first one go down I was pretty excited. It felt good to get out there and shoot it pretty well. ”

Senior and fan-favorite Tom Pritchard also brought Assembly Hall to its feet, scoring seven points, including a monstrous put-back dunk in the second half.

“It wasn’t as good as the first one I had last year, but it will get the job done,” Pritchard said. “It just always feels great when we get the crowd into the game when everybody has a bunch of big plays. They (the fans) have really been a sixth man this year helping us out by providing that energy.”

Throughout his career, Pritchard’s role on the team has been all over the place from the centerpiece to his current position as a defender and rebounder. It is nice to have a guy like that who is comfortable in doing whatever it takes to help the team.

“I think my defense sparked a couple extra points tonight, and it is just something I am trying to do. I want to bring energy to the defensive side of the court.”

Pritchard, alongside the rest of the frontcourt owned the Hawkeyes on the glass, nearly doubling them in boards with 37 to Iowa’s 22. Most of these rebounds came from the offensive end (20), which allowed Indiana to get easy second chance points leading to the highest point total scored by any team in the Big Ten this season.

“It’s always a key to get on the offensive glass, “ Zeller said. “We get second chance points and hustle plays. We just have to win the hustle game every day.

This game gave Indiana its fifth conference win of the season, the most the Hoosiers have had in the Tom Crean era. Despite allowing Iowa to shoot 63% from the floor overall, a great rebounding effort, good free throw shooting (25-31), and a 55% shooting clip themselves allowed the Hoosiers to coast to the 14 point victory.

This home victory was pivotal, as they now go on the road twice (Michigan and Purdue) in the next week before returning home to face Illinois Thursday, February 9.