Young Hoosiers overmatched again

indystar

November 26, 2008 by indystar | Staff

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LAHAINA, Hawaii — Two days. Two lopsided losses. And the promise of a lot more pain before there’s gain.That’s Indiana University basketball in a nutshell after Tuesday’s 80-54 loss to St. Joseph’s in a consolation semifinal in the EA Sports Maui Invitational.With no players scoring in double figures, 23 turnovers and an inability to slow the Hawks on the defensive end, IU (2-2) dropped its second game in a row. The Hoosiers will face host Chaminade tonight for seventh place in the eight-team tournament.Still, Indiana coach Tom Crean continues to find positives amid the frustrating level of play."We have to all stay up, stay encouraged and encourage each other,‘’ Crean said. "We just have to keep working to get through it. I have no doubt that we’ll turn it, I just don’t know how to expect it yet. We are all very young men with the exception of Kyle Taber on the court.“And we’re playing against groups of people that have been together for ‘x’ amount of years and have well-established programs. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact.’’IU’s lack of experience was on display again Tuesday. The Hoosiers were within five at halftime, then got four points from Tom Pritchard to open the second half, cutting the deficit to 34-33 with 18:05 to play.But then came a 3-pointer by the Hawks’ Darrin Govens, who led all scorers with 23. St. Joseph’s converted turnovers by Devan Dumes and Daniel Moore into dunks. In just over a minute, the score was 41-33.The Hawks weren’t finished. When its 19-0 run was completed, St. Joseph’s led 53-33 with 13:19 to play. During that span, IU turned it over six times.”We just didn’t come out with a lot of energy and we just had too many turnovers and didn’t pick it up,‘’ said Taber, a senior. "It’s just an area where we need to improve. We need to play with the same intensity level for 40 minutes.‘’Crean told his team at halftime that he thought the game would ultimately be decided in the first eight minutes of the second half. It took less than that, but the Hawks (2-2) clearly took control.Malik Story led IU with nine points, while fellow freshman Verdell Jones III had eight and Taber, Matt Roth and Pritchard each scored seven. IU’s leading rebounder was Taber with six.Despite the lopsided losses, Crean said he is encouraged by how hard his team is playing. The Hoosiers’ biggest problem is the competition level is simply a little higher than this young team is ready to face."It’s just a different level game right now for us,‘’ Crean said. "We can’t mirror that in practice. We’ve got freshmen guarding freshmen, we’ve got freshmen being guarded by walk-ons, and we come out in games and we’re being guarded by grown men."And we just have to continue to take all these experiences that we’re going through, keep getting better in practice and keep trying to turn it around.‘’[chart]|St. Joseph’s|Min|FG-A|FT-A|OR-T|A|F|T|Pts||Hilliard|10|1-2|0-0|0-1|0|4|2|2||Nivins|32|7-11|4-6|4-8|0|0|1|18||Carr|31|4-9|1-2|0-3|5|2|3|10||Govens|30|8-10|0-0|0-3|4|2|1|23||Williamson|33|4-5|2-3|1-4|9|1|4|11||Prescott|6|1-3|2-2|0-0|0|1|1|4||Brown|3|0-0|0-0|0-0|0|0|0|0||Bentley|14|1-2|0-0|0-1|1|0|1|2||Adebayo|5|0-0|0-0|0-2|0|3|1|0||Lashley|4|0-1|2-2|0-1|0|2|0|2||Irwin|24|4-8|0-0|2-4|1|4|2|8||Rogers|5|0-0|0-0|1-1|0|1|3|0||Auriemma|3|0-0|0-0|0-0|0|0|0|0||TEAM||||0-1||||||Totals||30-51|11-15|8-29|20|20|19|80|[end chart]3-Point Goals: 9-16 (Govens 7-9, Williamson 1-1, Carr 1-3, Lashley 0-1, Prescott 0-2). Steals: 9 (Carr 3, Govens 2, Williamson 2, Lashley, Irwin). Blocked shots: 6 (Nivins 4, Hilliard 2). Technical fouls: None.[chart]|INDIANA|Min|FG-A|FT-A|OR-T|A|F|T|Pts||Williams|22|2-8|2-2|3-4|0|3|2|6||Pritchard|17|3-6|1-2|2-3|1|2|2|7||Moore|29|0-1|0-2|0-1|3|2|7|0||Jones III|28|4-8|0-0|1-2|1|1|1|8||Dumes|22|2-8|2-4|2-3|2|3|5|6||White|1|0-1|0-0|0-0|0|0|0|0||Roth|15|2-4|1-2|0-0|1|2|1|7||Finkelmeier|5|0-0|0-0|0-0|0|1|2|0||Schutz|7|0-0|2-3|0-0|0|0|0|2||Barnett|2|0-0|0-0|0-0|0|0|0|0||Lewis|1|0-0|0-0|0-0|0|0|0|0||Story|17|2-6|4-5|1-4|0|1|1|9||Jobe|15|1-1|0-0|1-3|0|1|1|2||Taber|19|2-5|3-3|2-6|2|2|1|7||TEAM||||1-3||||||Totals||18-48|15-23|13-29|10|18|23|54|[end chart]3-Point Goals: 3-14 (Roth 2-3, Story 1-4, Jones III 0-1, White 0-1, Williams 0-2, Dumes 0-3). Steals: 12 (Williams 3, Moore 3, Jones III 2, Story 2, Dumes, Schutz). Blocked shots: 0. Technical fouls: None.Halftime: St. Joseph’s 34-29. Officials: Verne Harris, Jamie Luckie, Dwayne Gladden. Attendance: 2,500.

Categories: Sports, Indiana University

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indiana university basketball, lahaina hawaii, tom pritchard, Tom Crean, darrin govens, intensity level, indiana coach, ea sports, dumes, daniel moore, coach tom, devan, no doubt, second game, Hoosiers, taber, four points, six times, consolation, st joseph, sports, indiana university

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