Christian Watford, Derek Elston and Indiana did most of their work in the first half in an easy 88-54 victory over SIU-Edwardsville Friday in a non-conference matchup.

The hot-shooting Hoosiers scored the first 24 points of the game and bounced back from a loss at Kentucky last week.

Watford finished with 18 points and Elston added 14 for the Hoosiers (8-2), who had lost two of their last three games.

Watford scored 16 of his points in the first half and Elston added 10 to lift Indiana to a 47-20 lead at intermission. Indiana shot the lights out in the opening 20 minutes, hitting 7 of 8 3-pointers and shooting 68 percent (17 of 25) from the field.

Indiana turned up the defense as well, scoring 20 points off of 18 turnovers by SIU-Edwardsville.

Michael Messer scored 15 points and Corey Wickware added 12 for the Cougars (2-10), who shot just 33 percent (17 of 51) from the field and made only 4-of-18 3-pointers.