BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Playing in front of Indiana basketball royalty on Monday night, guard Lamar Wilkerson made some history of his own in a 92-74 win over Oregon.

The 6-foot-6 guard scored 41 points in the win, hitting 6-of-12 three-pointers and 7-of-8 shots from inside the arc despite missing his first five shots. Toss in 9-for-11 from the free throw line, and he eclipsed the 40-point mark for the second time in three months at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. He had 44 points on Dec. 9 against Penn State.

His brilliant game on Monday night came in front of many of the players from Indiana's historic 1976 team, which went undefeated while winning a national championship with a 32-0 mark. Now 50 years later, they are still the last unbeaten team in college basketball.

They saw some history of their own because Wilkerson is the only player to have two 40-plus games at the iconic 54-year-old Assembly Hall. No one else has more than one.

And no one from that great 1976 team ever scored 40 at Assembly Hall. Kent Benson came closest with 38. Scott May did score 41 once, but that was on the road at Wisconsin in February of 1976.

Much like that first big game against Penn State, this was a lot of fun, too. 

"Me personally, any time I get to play basketball I have fun, So it was pretty fun, man,'' said Wilkerson, who transferred to Indiana after three seasons at Sam Houston State. "Just playing with the team, seeing how excited they were for me to get it.

"Honestly I was just trying to come out there last two media (timeouts) and coach wouldn't let me come out, so just go out there and keep playing.''

Wilkerson and the Hoosiers struggled out of the gate, with Oregon — a 10.5-point underdog that's only won one Big Ten game all year — but the Hoosiers got to halftime with a 36-30 lead.

They went on a 16-6 run to open the second half, and led by 16 right away. Oregon never got closer than 10 the rest of the game.

Wilkerson got plenty of help, too. Sam Alexis had 16 points on 8-for-8 shooting, Tucker DeVries added 15 and Nick Dorn had 11. Indiana was 11-for-27 from three despite starting the game 2-for-12 from deep.

Wilkerson made a big impression on his teammates.

"Yeah, I mean, I've only really seen him play every day since the summer, but I would say since that point, when he walked in the gym, everybody knew he could shoot,'' Tucker DeVries said. "I would says his approach every day and his progress and just becoming  a complete scorer over the last few months has been really impressive.

"And on top of that, he doesn't just hold the ball. He makes plays for other guys. He screens well. When you have a guy like that, a guy that can draw the attention, that really helps a team. I'm very grateful to be a part of a team with him on it.''

With the win, Indiana is now 17-8 overall and 8-6 in the Big Ten. They've won five of six, and seem firmly in the NCAA Tournament at this point. But they've got plenty of challenges ahead, including difficult road games at Illinois on Sunday and at Purdue on Feb. 20.

Wilkerson needs to continue to carry this team. He's averaging 28.2 points per game during this 5-1 run.

"Lamar, he's pretty special,'' Indiana coach Darian DeVries said. "I told you that after our Wisconsin game, that he's one of those guys that's going to play this game for a long time. You can see as he's gotten more comfortable with what we're doing and we've challenged him with some things defensively, play-making and creating. He's accepted those challenges and just took off with it.

"Now you're seeing kind of the full package of what he's able to do. He had a few extra ones out there I hadn't seen before that were pretty cool, so that was as impressive of a second half performance as I've seen.''

INDIANA'S ALL-TIME 40-POINT SCORERS: Thirteen Indiana basketball players have scored 40 or more points in a game, and Lamar Wilkerson has now done it twice. Here's the complete list of all 40-point scorers in school history. It's happened 22 times. READ MORE

INDIANA 2025-26 SCHEDULE: Here is Indiana's complete 2025-26 men's basketball schedule, with dates, opponents, locations, game times and TV information, with results updated in real time. READ MORE