INDIANAPOLIS — After a rough first half on both ends of the floor, things were looking bleak for Indiana.

Then, when all hope seemed lost, with boos coming in bunches from Hoosier fans, the unexpected happened.

A hard flagrant foul from Bonzie Colson on Thomas Bryant with 13:08 remaining seemed to give Indiana the inner fire it needed. The Hoosiers were down by 10 at the time, but from that point on the game was all Indiana.

Troy Williams led the Hoosiers with 18 points and 10 rebounds in a double-double effort that catapulted Indiana over Notre Dame 80-73 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

After trailing by 16 points, Indiana had its back against the wall. The Hoosiers dug deep and found a way to outscore the Irish 40-17, good for the largest comeback in the Crean era.

“There were probably some people at home that turned the game off, but we just came together,” sophomore Robert Johnson said.

Coming into the second half, the Hoosiers were only down by 10 and allowed Notre Dame to shoot 7 of 7 to start the half, and the Hoosiers knew they needed to make a change.

Junior forward Collin Hartman explained that the team needed to play like they are capable of, something they were not doing to that point.

“We had different guys step up and play their roles,” Hartman said. “Our defense creates our offense, so we just turned up our intensity.”

Head coach Tom Crean echoed the importance of defense creating offensive opportunities and said that the early offensive struggles hurt the Hoosiers on defense.

“We let our lack of offense dictate our mindset too much in the first half,” Crean said. “That can’t be. It made us a little slower defensively, not as locked in on a couple rotations, and we can’t have that.”

One of the keys to the victory was Indiana’s aggressiveness on the offensive glass. In fact, the Hoosiers swept up over 50 percent of their misses. If Williams could pick the game’s turning point it would be the putback dunk from freshman OG Anunoby with just over five minutes remaining in the game.

“That really sparked the game,” Williams said. “It took us three tries. I took two shots on that possession too, and OG grabbing the rebound by going up and dunking really sparked us.”

Although Yogi Ferrell struggled throughout the game with eight points off seven shots, the senior came through when it mattered most.

With 4:13 remaining, Ferrell hit a 3-pointer that tied the game at 71. Then, the Irish came back to take the lead off a Colson layup. However, Ferrell found a way to immediately answer by hitting two free throws to tie the game yet again.

From that point on it was all Hoosiers as Indiana finished the game on a 9-0 run.

This is the biggest win of the season, a signature victory for Indiana. Now Hoosier fans will have to wait and see if Indiana can use this win as a launching pad heading into Big Ten play.

“The way they won it in the second half, I hope they continue to build on it,” Crean said. “It becomes a personal responsibility to each person to remember how they did it and how they came together to help their teammates.”

Still, Indiana needs to take care of two non-conference opponents before they can put the focus on the conference schedule.

Up next, the Hoosiers head back to Bloomington to play their second to last non-conference game of the season on Dec. 22 when they take on Kennesaw State.